With the declaration of
results for 10th and 12th class, once again started the ritual of trolling of
teachers working in government schools. A friend posted a message on a social
networking site. "To improve the education in Govt schools , all
government teachers should be asked to admit their children in government run
schools". The post was liked by few other friends followed by comments
from several others putting the blame of poor condition of government schools
wholly and solely on teachers. In my reaction to the post I wrote, "Why
only teachers, Why not all non teaching staff starting from director education,
CEOs, ZEOs, and other officials including supporting staff". Condition
of Government schools is what it is, not because of teachers only but non teaching
factors are equally responsible. Does anybody deny the fact that there is an elaborate
and transparent selection procedure in place and most qualified and best among
the lot are selected as teachers?. Even private school teachers long to get the
job in Government schools. The series of quality trainings on varied subjects
which a government teacher is put through year after year, most of the private
school teachers cannot even dream of. Number of reputed organizations under
various schemes are roped-in and trainings are provided to government teachers.
Targeting only the teachers and putting the blame of underperformance of
government schools on teachers only is no less than a conspiracy of directing
the discourse towards finding and suggesting the appropriate punishment for
under performer, and under this garb non teaching players succeed in diverting
the attention from other possible reasons which are equally responsible for
poor results of government schools and with the result these non teaching
factors remain unaddressed.
Take for example the quality of students. Does quality
of students have nothing to do with the
results? As they say, you can take horse to the pond but you cannot make it
drink water. Before making any judgements, one should first visit few
primary and/or middle schools, talk to
the students and teachers there, do a bit of survey on the background of students, find
out the socio economic class to which they belong, the families where from
these children come, figure out the educational background of parents/guardians,
reason and expectation of parents from sending their wards to schools. These
are the students who later on form the input and it will be on the basis of
them that authorities will be suggesting rewards or punishments without
realizing that it was their own non detention policy that a student have
reached up to present stage. I know a
government school student who never talks in a class. She does not respond to
the queries, all of the efforts of the teacher failed. Same student behaves
normally at home. There is a student who is a son of a beggar on the bridge
outside school. Is there any need to explain the blown up self-confidence of
this student?. There are students who are victims of family disputes and domestic
violence. Some others are mentally challenged. Private schools will never admit
such students but government schools cannot deny admission. These are only few
examples. Government schools house lot of such heartbreaking stories.
Among various other reasons which lead to the poor
performance of government schools is the inadequate infrastructure. At some
places three government schools function from same building and in some other schools
a teacher has to take three or four classes in a single room. In Srinagar
itself there are schools which are running from dilapidated buildings without
any furniture not to talk of rural areas where students are made to sit on bare
floor. Hygiene is the last thing, if at all, it comes to the mind of
authorities. This is the area where a teacher cannot do anything and blaming a
teacher will be very unfair.
Officials in school education department while sitting
in their cosy office rooms with couple of gas heaters take decisions for teachers and students who
are in school without any heating arrangement even without proper place to sit.
Most of the times those people
are placed at the helm of affairs in the school education department who have never been teachers nor have ever worked in a school environment.
There are black sheep in every department and so are among teachers. But at the
same time there are teachers who are in grief because of the situation of
students, because of the disgusting condition of workplace, because of the discourteous
behaviour of officers with them. Winter or summer vacations, which form the
part of package for teachers, have become thorn in the eye of certain
elements who are not entitled for the same. They leave no stone unturned to
discourage the practice. Somebody please tell them that teaching job demands
vacations and the practice is followed throughout world, not only in kashmir.
One can very easily find a "supporting" staff
member in education department who is at much lower grade in terms of rank and
pay scale then a teacher but have an audacity to talk with arrogance to the
teachers as they enjoy the patronage of high-ups and/or have not been provided
proper orientation. There are officials who visit schools sometimes not to
access the condition of schools or redress the problems which a school may be
facing but only to harass teachers so as to make their authority felt and
satisfy themselves. To some, these things may seem trivial but repetition of these things make teachers
to loose their will and receiving pay-cheque at the end of the month remains
the only motivation left for them to stay in job. Contrary to a common
perception, In government schools a teacher has to look after so many things
other than teaching like supervision and
arrangement of mid day meals which includes arranging ration, gas, vegetables
etc; arrangement of uniform, preparing scholarship data, handling multiple bank
accounts, maintaining of accounts and formats like UDISE, Red account, SSA fund
and what not. Conducting various surveys, Examination duties, election duties,
accompanying students to various competitions, etc are among other duties which
are assigned to a government school teacher.
Coming back to our social networking conversation, another
friend joined and I think without following the discussion going on and
responding only to the original post, added "All govt teachers should
be deputed to private schools for a year so that they get proper orientation".
This is absurd. My simple question to this friend of mine and to those who hold
the same opinion is to consider two cases, the one suggested by a friend that
all government school teachers are send to private schools and another case
where private school teachers are send to govt schools with existing
infrastructure and hygienic condition, where would you like to send your kids
now? Try to respond to this question and you will find where the problem lies.
