My uncle has gone on his almost quarterly visit to Helsinki on some official business and I am again on my (almost) quarterly stay over at my grandmother's place. I don't complain though. With a library as vast as his, I can just pick up a novel and read till I fall asleep. The other day, I was leafing through "Brisingr" possibly for the fifth time when amidst the soaps and serials, there was a reality show on the telly.
The show is called "neena, naana" meaning "you or me". As the name suggests, it is a debate between two groups of people. This time it was between a group of teachers on one side and a group of students on the other side. It was a very very poor representation of students for reasons I will explain in the coming few lines.
The program started off with both teachers and students making references to the bond between Dronacharya and Arjuna in the Mahabharatha and how teaching has evolved over the ages. Then started the blame game as students blamed their teachers for absolutely everything on earth. Some of the topics discussed were
1) Tuitions: The students harangued the teachers that the only reason they go to tuitions is because of the incapability of the teachers to conduct classes in college.
True. Many teachers do bunk classes. But what is the point of separating college teachers and tuition teachers? Aren't the people who take tuitions teachers as well? I am sure that half of the teacher representatives on that show took tuitions. So somebody's devil (college teacher) is somebody else's God (tuition teacher). Secondly, in many institutions, the fees being paid to the teachers is insulting. So there is no way for them to feed their family other than to take tuitions.
2) Sexual harassment: The rough literal translation of an accusation by a student was "What do you say about all the sexual harassment you people do in class"?
Seriosuly? Are these students trying to make the world think their daily visit to their place of studies is fraught with perils and dangers? and that the staff room in such institutions is the equivalent of a sodomist's jail cell?
3) Teachers taking bribes: Another pretty serious comment that one student made was that his teacher asked him to buy a TV for his house to grant him attendance:
You moron! If you were as prompt in attending classes as you are in commenting on your teachers, you would have had no need to bribe your teacher to get attendance.All these discussions took up the half an hour of allotted time for the program.
Is there any sense at all in this discussion? Public forums are meant to debate general problems, not bleat about some apparent injustice that happened to you and then blame the whole world for your problems.
Nowhere was a word uttered about improving the quality of education in the country. Nowhere was there a discussion about quota in education. Nowhere was there a discussion about the complete lack of research facilities and the unavailability of world class instiitutions for higher education.Going to the grassroots, there was no discussion about what can be done to make sure villages get atleast one teacher in their schools. About how to make more kids attend schools.
We should look at the example of Finland. In Finland, the facilities available for teachers of schools is so good that their education department has completely done away with exams as they are confident that their teachers will not let their children down, In such an atmosphere, the children can obviously concentrate on learning more rather than studying just to pass in an exam. The Finnish teachers undergo rigorous training at the end of which their pay and social status is equivalent to that of a person in any other profession.
Personally, I feel that everyone from whom we have learnt something in life deserves some amount of respect. I also agree that there some complete idiots posing as teachers who bring a bad name to the whole profesion. But is that prevalent only in the teaching field? No.As someone who is planning a career in education, I feel that it is better to introspect rather than blame the world. There is no good or bad teacher. There is only a teacher who knows how to teach and one who doesnt. That does not imply that the teacher who doesnt teach so well is a lightning struck fool.
But then again, its just me. Who can stand up against the might of the Great Ignorant Indian Student?
May God help us all!
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Its a big circle actually. Facilities are not given because there are no good teachers; There are no good teachers because there are no facilities.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the research scene in non IITs is a big joke. A person I know has been waiting for a research grant from 2 years. He's a brilliant scientist, who came back from the States because of personal reasons, but is struggling to get tenure here, due to the lack of impetus given to research.
The pay scale is decent for professional colleges, with the Sixth Pay Commission and all, but it sucks for Junior colleges and Schools. This, is the primary reason for the rise of tuition classes.
In my two years at BASE, I used to think that it helped in some way. In the end, it did help in getting me a decent college, but that's where it ends. I ended up as brainless as I was two years prior. Only after entering professional college did I really begin to understand concepts. What NRN says about IITians is true, coaching classes are taking away the shine from students, and ensures that only the pure nerds enter IITs, and not the really enterprising, deserving students.
Breaking news: Chetan Bhagat defends his alma mater. He says: "Fix the system". What, I ask, is the bloody system? Doesn't it comprise of the institution, the Government, the teachers, and most importantly, the students and their parents? Btw, that's exactly what NRN also said, fix the system. But he went ahead and pointed out the flaw in the system: The insanely tough JEE. What credibility does Chetan Bhagat have? He is a Mechanical Engineer from IITD, who was employed as an investment banker, who quit to become a writer. He showed his capabilities as a Mechanical Engineer well. Where? In Citibank?
NRN obviously knows more about the level of IIT students. It is extremely depressing that in the second most populated country, there isnt even one globally recognized university. IITs have the capacity to be one of the best institutes in the world provided the quota system is removed and students are admitted purely on merit.
ReplyDeleteIITs will fare better is half the coaching classes in Andhra (Narayana, Chaitanya etc) are closed down. All they are teaching is ingenious ways to memorize entire 1000 page IIT books.