By Ananya S Guha
The school is the starting point of not only a child’s education, but of the journey of life. That is why school education is central to a child’s memory, disaffection, education of course and even co curricular activities that go with it. The school becomes a second home, a place where there are friends and confidantes. The teacher is a pivotal person, not only inside the classroom but outside it as well. The teacher extends the classroom into a more intimate world of friendship. That is why a child looks up to the teacher, tries to curry favour and ingratiate her, loves it if the teacher talks to her, has a word of praise and pats her on the back. The child in school having found a parallel home seeks love and appreciation and wants to please the teacher in a way so as to evoke a positive response in her. Disappointment can also come by way of poor results, not making it into say a debating team or acting in the concert, but all along it is the teacher who holds centre stage more than the Principal. Later on the school creates memories as the child becomes an adult, and such memories are often given continuity between the world of a child and that of the adult.
School education is crucial not only for studies, but for the huge platform it creates for friendship, activities, fun and laughter. That is why adults fondly remember school, their friends and teachers. In fact many remember first and sometimes only a teacher or teachers in school. The sort of world a school creates gives it a strong continuity with the future. Hence old boys’ and girls’ meets are events made to reclaim the past memories and give it validity. Many try to persuade a disbelief of it, but that is trying to disregard personal history. That begins at school.
That is why when we talk of education, it is school education one must start with. The base must be strong not only in studies and earning grades, but aspects like sensitivity to surroundings, to poverty, feeling for the down trodden must touch base. And who can be a better facilitator than the teacher ? Yet what actually is the teaching imparted in a classroom? I’m not sure if BEd text books answer this question. The classroom is a presence, which the teacher ought to sense, feel and understand intuitively freed of all bias. Once any bias comes in then the students are no longer children. It is an imposition, which becomes a bondage for the child. If a teacher clearly dislikes a child, sensibilities are hurt. If any kind of preference is given to other children, a child feels humiliated. Hurt turns to anger and frustration. Memories of the school are consciously erased. They do not figure in the consciousness of the future.
That is why education policies must have independent moorings on school education. The terms of reference should not be only the syllabus, grades, evaluation et al, but also role modeling that teachers and principals can play; their ability to discover talent, creativity, aptitude for aspects which later on constitute fundamentals of a profession. The child is a dreamer, the manifestation is various: introversion, extroversion, athletics, science, passion for music, theatre, reading and writing. If these are constructed on the fundamentals right from the word go, then the child’s talents will flower even at school and he/she will be able to applaud the virtues and talents of other children, and will always seek counsel from the teacher who appreciates it. To make a child feel shameful is the worst indignity of education, as this will affect the future and career options.
Hence selecting teachers necessitates choosing people with understanding, having a love for children, understanding their psyche, being an enabling factor in discovering talent. The stricture of having teacher training degrees may or may not work. How is an audience for the child created? The child is seeking again and again an audience, some appreciation, a kind word, a word of encouragement etc.
That is why recruiting teachers at lower and higher levels becomes crucial. It is not only an aptitude for classroom teaching which is required, but also the imperative to extend the four at times, monotonous walls of the classroom. Extending it means reaching out to the student.
Now let us examine how we select teachers. From school to college and university it is tests, tests and tests, in addition to teacher education and doctoral qualifications. The interviews are more often than not a farce, saddled with nepotism and prejudices against candidates by whom selection committees feel, are a threat to their incumbencies. I wonder how much the tests look into the aptitude for teaching, maintaining a classroom and managing it? What do we expect from a teacher, simply to read out from a book, deliver a lecture impeccably, which many may not understand? The whole point being it is not the teacher’s satisfaction level, but whether the student is satisfied which is central to the positing of a quality driven educational system. Aptitude tests for teachers is all about handling and understanding the classroom situation, latent and intuitive.
In the context of this the controversy of recruitment of school teachers in Meghalaya is painful. If one is to tamper with marks to smuggle teachers into a profession not suited for them, then nothing could be a sadder commentary on how we perceive a system, meant to inject notions of a vision for life, living life to the full by way of the occupation one chooses irrespective of position and the so called ‘ power’. If we have to build educational policies, we have to choose right teachers not by nepotism and interference but by a careful, selective process based on aptitude and a sound feel for the profession. Otherwise we are letting our students down in a culpable manner. The task of selecting teachers both at school and university levels must be built in national educational policies. In a state like ours, where we need to focus on rural education for the disadvantaged, recruitment cannot become independent of looking out for selfless, willing and committed school teachers. What is happening is a very sad travesty of truth and a slur on education as a whole. (The author is Regional Director IGNOU Shillong) .