Teachers' Day should regain lost glory

"Teachers — opening doors to a better world." Teachers are the heart of public education. Opening doors to a world of knowledge is the challenge that teachers worldwide undertake and fulfil every day in their schools, their communities and their homes.

Through their efforts and imagination, teachers inspire students to reach out and move beyond their horizons. Good teaching results in ensuring that we, as a society, have knowledgeable and forward-looking citizens who can assume the mantle of leadership in the future.

Till early 80's a teacher was looked upon as a friend, philosopher and guide who could hold our hands, open our minds and mould the students into good citizens.

Teaching was considered as a respectable and influential job though wages were low. There used to be strong bonding between the students and teachers who used to impart good value in children and train them to be responsible citizens.

The bonding between the teachers and students used to be such that even two decades after leaving their alma mater if a student used to go back to his or her educational institution, the teachers remembered them. They used to recall how responsible, how naughty and how mischievous these students used to be. The students in turn used to recall the role of teachers in moulding them.

Those were the days when the teachers used to greet every student before he or she entered the examination hall, offer a piece of sweet and with them good luck. Again, they used to meet the students after the examination and find out how they fared.

This used to give confidence among the students that they had done pretty well. Cases of students going into depression and committing suicide apprehending that they will fail were almost unheard of.

Those days parents were friendly, supportive and were eager to work with teachers to make sure their children get the best possible education. But today things have changed. What are the causes of this lack of respect for teachers, and where is this headed?

Reasons are many and mixed. The number of dedicated teachers has come down. Parents who used to be supportive and eager to with teachers have different attitude.

They don't display much respect towards the teachers and the teachers treat the profession as 9 am to 4 pm job. These days parents do not truly understand what teachers do in the classroom. Teachers too do not try to assess what the students need in classroom.

From being Gurus they are now everything except a Guru in real terms. Reverence of students towards teachers has vanished. The students alone cannot be blamed for this. There are any number of incidents where teachers were proving to be everything except being a Guru.

A century ago, teachers were almost certainly among the most educated members of their communities. About two generations ago, discipline could mean "Go stand in the corner," a smack on the hand with a ruler, or even being sent to the principal.

Today, all of these are considered Dark Age remedies, and teachers are almost powerless in matters of discipline. Worse, they often fear repercussions of even a mild rebuke.

Repercussions can be anything from a verbal confrontation with an irate parent, to physical assault from either the parent or the student and threats of a lawsuit. This results in killing the motivation of the teachers to discipline. The teachers also need to take the blame since in the name of discipline there have been incidents where the students particularly in government schools were tortured.

Modern day teachers are more into other activities including politics. Prepare lesson plans and complete the syllabus for record sake in time like robots is the order of the day. They hardly bother to find out whether they had succeeded in making the students understand or not. This has resulted in the students forgetting the concept of questioning and analysis. Mug up important questions, follow guides and pass the exams is the order of the day.

The parents argue that they are unable to concentrate on their kids because they are pushed for time. Both are working or in some cases they are single parents. They are frayed round the edges and they don't have time or patience to take a deeper look at what's going on with their kids. They also say the schools have been collecting lakhs of rupees as fees and hence it is their responsibility to take full care of the students.

Amid this situation, the Teacher's Day seems to be losing its importance. Instead of being an honourable day for all teachers in the country it has become yet another event that comes once in a year. Many do not even know why it is celebrated.

September 5 is the birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who was a man of many good qualities and a favourite teacher among students. When his students approached him to celebrate his birthday, he refused permission and said that it should be celebrated as Teacher's Day because teachers have been the architects of the society and without them no society can walk in the path of progression.

In his book titled, "Political Thinkers of Modern India", he signified the importance of teachers and education in a country like democratic India which was still in its early years of development. According to him, there is a huge role of teachers in nation building and for that sake teachers should be respected more.

Apart from being a thinker and teacher he was also a philosopher. He once wrote a book on Bhagavad Gita and there he defined a teacher as, "The one who emphasises on presentation to converge different currents of thoughts to the same end".

Though Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan rose to become the President of India from being a humble teacher, he never forgot his roots. By the time he entered politics, most of the leaders of that time like Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Rajendra Prasad etc were his fans for this thinking on nation-building.

His skills were proven in the arena of politics also. He had the political insight to recognise the impediments well in advance and carried the required courage to scold party leaders for their procrastination and delinquency. Way back in 1947, he warned the Congress about the alarming consequences of nepotism and corruption. We are facing the consequences for ignoring the alert.

Teachers are expected to shape the mind of youth and impart good values and turn into responsible citizens. To quote the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "Teaching is not a profession, It is Jeevan Dharma (a way of life). In fact, it is a divine responsibility to guide and enlighten. India should regain the status of 'Vishwaguru' (leader in education) by giving high respect to teachers. Teachers should encourage students to think critically about issues concerning the nation. Teachers determination and sincerity will shape the destiny of the nation as they are laying the foundation and the building blocks of the society".

The present Covid pandemic has brought lot many changes in the lives of the people. It has reminded them of the forgotten values and certain disciplines observed by our elders. As we give a standing ovation to the teachers, let us pray that they too will strive to revive the old values and principles of being Guru's and once again emerge as a community called true teacher.