By Benjamin Lyngdoh
The concerns raised by the teaching fraternity in your daily dated 26th February, 2015 are nothing new. They are chronic issues plaguing our education sector for long with no serious and dedicated effort at mitigation. As such, these issues have turned cancerous with lethal potential towards further undermining and eroding the social image of teachers, their motivation and dedication, self-esteem and self-confidence. Accordingly, I would like to place the following pointers.
Firstly, we are living in an age where we like to glorify privatization. However, we must realize that it does not work fairly for all sectors, especially education. This is because education is a social sector. As such, it requires a public intervention. The government of the day cannot turn a blind eye and leave all to market forces. It has to be proactive and invest appropriately. The most urgent being the formulation of a ‘compensation model’ whereby all authorities work together towards ensuring a regular pay package. This may include graduation of all posts into UGC scale under the sole responsibility of the government or resource sharing between colleges and the government so as to ensure an at-par UGC scale to all teachers. Of course, this would require a lot of thinking, planning and financial resource mobilization. Nonetheless, it is high time that we start the process of thinking on these lines and thereby try to salvage and rejuvenate the sector.
Secondly, education has turned into a business that is amongst the highly profitable. Hence, we are witnessing an increasing commercialization. The colleges are opening up new departments and there is nothing wrong in it. However, this is all at the absence of appropriate benefits and regular posts for the concerned teachers. As a result, the colleges are forced to charge a hefty fee on such programmes by tagging them as professional and such courses are managed through a poor student-teacher ratio. This is what happens when we leave all to market forces. All of this is a vicious cycle showing no sign of an end and it further results in patronization. Two or three class of teachers emerges in a college and the contractual ones are indeed classified into extra and burdensome classes and responsibilities. As such, the question of a provident fund is a far cry as under the ‘contributory scheme’ the employer is not legally obliged to make a financial contribution for contractual employees. As such, the immediate pressing issue is finding ways and means for streamlining the organizational structure and duties and responsibilities of the teachers against the backdrop of a regular pay package.
Thirdly and as a result of the above, the attraction and retention of human resources into our education sector faces a huge challenge. The teaching profession is not a high priority in the minds of many. There is no feeling of loyalty towards the colleges. There is no job satisfaction. There is no scope and platform for the teachers to grow academically and otherwise. In the end, it results in a lot of dysfunctional relations and operations at all levels. Appropriate talents look for an exit route and do so at every opening, even if the alternative is less attractive in terms of job description. Overall, the assimilation and dissemination of knowledge and skills from the teacher to student becomes a challenge. We are gradually moving towards fulfilling the demeaning and offensive cliché ‘those who can’t do; teach’. In general and ultimately, it reflects upon the inputs that we offer into the socio-economic mainstream.
Lastly and as a possible solution, prioritization is to be looked into. As mentioned, the government will have to invest meaningfully in education. It is absolutely fine to have privatization in the sector and I am sure many will point to that. However, at the initial stage the government must play a lead role as such privatization will not have a holistic impact across the state. It may work well in the big and established colleges of Shillong, but, smaller towns will definitely struggle. Amidst the prioritization, the look-in into the regular pay package of the teachers is a must. If only the government would speak and think about education in the same line and spirit as coal mining. Worryingly, in a stage where we are blaming any and all of our problems under the sun to the fall in coal royalties and taxes, it would not be surprising for the government to use this very same channel to conveniently escape and dodge the matter. In the end, we must always keep in mind that a society that does not respect and care for its teachers will always progress regressively.
(The writer is a scholar at NEHU)