It’s going to be the silly season again. The pay commission recommendations are out. So, very shortly, the UGC appointed commission will come out with the recommendations for teachers in Universities and Colleges. But even before these recommendations are out, the calculators are out in the hands of some teachers and the surmises, estimates about how much are we to gain are being bandied about. The faces have already started to hang over what is considered to be peanuts doled out by the government and about how inflation will put paid to this miniscule rise.

 

But this is not what I want to write about. When the commission recommendations are out, the Maharashtra State Government will put up its own commission ostensibly to tailor these overall recommendations to the needs of the state. In reality though, the commission will make humiliating statements about the teachers being shirkers, about their non-accountability, about their being paid grossly more than the work they do or not do. The general populace will join in and a lot of letters to the editors will be written regarding the insincerity of today’s teachers, about how the present lot is out to malign the face of what once was a noble profession and about why teachers’ salaries should actually be reduced. Then the government will come out with fresh rules. They will peg the ‘work-load’ (load? Teachers are donkeys? Beasts of burden?) higher than the existing one to justify the higher pay the teachers will be receiving. They will increase the number of hours a teacher must spend in the campus in order to earn the increase in salary and so on and so forth. The worst part is that the teachers will not object to the offensive tone and content of what the government and the people at large spew forth. 

 

And why will the teachers not object? The reason is simple – almost everything being said about the teachers is true! Not for all of them – there are a few who are just wonderful and these are the ones who feel the indignity of it all. But for most, there is no indignity; it’s just a necessary barrage that has to be borne before the higher scales are implemented.

 

We, a bunch of teachers from different disciplines, were sitting around doing admissions a few years back. One of the teachers, who was my teacher too, started berating the modern students. Everybody joined the tirade and I listened. Students did not want to attend classes. They did not understand what was good for them. They spent more time watching movies or in other worthless pursuits. India was rotting and the new generation was responsible for that. Blah … blah.. blah de blah…

 

“You are unusually silent,” said this teacher to me (the one who had been my teacher and a very bad teacher at that).

 

“What is there to say?” I asked.

 

“You have no views on the subject?”

 

“I have. But you are not going to like them.”

 

“Oh?” and the teacher looked at others. “Why don’t you say what you want to say? May be you are wrong and we may like your views.”

 

“A subject is as good as the teacher,” I said.

 

“What does that mean?” She asked.

 

“If the students don’t come to a particular class, it may be because they do not find the teacher useful. Have you ever thought that the teacher can be downright boring?”

 

“Oh! So you think that the teachers are at fault?”

 

“Not think, I know that most fault lies with the teachers. Not that the students are blameless, but the teachers are more responsible.”

 

Now the teachers were enraged by what I had said. “That’s not right,” my teacher scowled at me. “But since you have said it, you must now prove it.”

 

“Alright,” I said. “I will ask you all a few questions. Let’s see how many can you answer in the affirmative.”

 

The questions that I asked are given below.

 

  

I could have asked many more questions. But these were enough. Nobody even tried answering these. But it left a lot of bad blood between me and them. They have never involved me in their debates regarding the uselessness of the modern students after this incident.

 

But are the teachers to be blamed or is there a deeper rooted malaise? This is the final question that I am asking in this post.

 

In the Gurukul system that India had, there was a very peculiar practice – at least in the Takshshila gurukul. From the passing out students, one or two students – those which were the top of the class – were retained to teach at the Gurukul. Others could go home and indulge themselves in whatever other profession they cared for. See something here? The best were to teach. For other professions, lesser students could do.

 

Now look at what happens today. As it is, the salaries are unattractive and so the talent is not attracted. But even when a person wants to come in owing to his love for the profession, does he get entry easily? No. The talents that the selectors look for are quite different today. You think that there is only 50% reservation? Think again. That 50% is for the caste and it is bad. But the rest of the 50% is also reserved. You know someone in the management? You are related to someone in the management or the Principal or some other politically important personality? Or, do you have money so that you could pay your way through? You have no knowledge of the subject and no talent to teach? It does not matter. There are books and the students can self learn. The truth of the matter is that you will be selected if you have some suitable political connection. The only time a talented guy/girl gets in is when no one of the reserved category is available.

 

Now, look at how reservation works here. Reservation in a bank, in some clerical service or even in some other skilled job is still alright. But reservation in teaching profession (not just caste based, any other type as I have said above) is just too bad. One donkey, one idiot here produces god knows how many idiots in his lifetime. A bad teacher kills the academic thirst of a student. A bad teacher kills the questioning attitude of the young mind. A bad teacher can even poison a young mind. A bad teacher creates students who have lost their power of imagination and creative thinking. 

 

Things don’t stop here. They get worse because we have democracy in the educational institutions. So, you have to play politics to get to become a dean, an academic councilor, chairman of a board o studies, member of management council and even to become a VC. Who plays politics? These same reserved category people who have no interest in academics play politics while the handful who are truly academic mind their academics. So, the policy makers are all those who have nothing to do with the academics in any case. So they frame policies that make pursuit of academics increasingly difficult.

But why should the government blame the teachers? You have put those teachers there blind to the fact that this is one area where you should get the best talents. When you have degraded the profession so completely and so directly, what right do you have to go teacher-bashing everytime some reason presents itself? 

And why should the people blame the teachers? Did you do anything, did you agitate, when this profession which affects the new generation of all of you was being degraded by the government? Are some of you not happy and make elated noises everytime some idiot like Arjun Singh increases the reserved quota? Have you not allowed the things to rot even when you knew that they were rotting? So do not blame the current crop of teachers. THEY ARE THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SINS COMMITTED BY YOU.

 

Lastly, don’t you think guys that the progress that is taking place in India today is absolutely miraculous given this state of affairs?


P. S. This has come out quite serious. But I have tried to be more humorous with my earlier posts on what situations arise in Indian education scene. If you feel like, take a look at these earlier posts. The links are given below.
http://avinashjee.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/09/scenes-from-the-indian-academia-i.htm

http://avinashjee.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/10/scenes-from-the-indian-academia-ii.htm

http://avinashjee.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/10/napoleon-goes-to-afghanistan-blogprint.htm