ROLE OF TEACHERS IN EMERGING INDIAN SOCIETY

ROLE OF TEACHERS IN EMERGING

INDIAN SOCIETY

Akhila Vijayan (No. 22, Mathematics)

INTRODUCTION

The National Policy in Education, 1986 has said about the role of teachers, “The status of the teacher reflects the socio-cultural ethos of a society; it is said that no people can rise above the level of its teachers. The Government and the community should endeavour to create condition which will help motivate and inspire teachers on constructive and creative lines. Teachers should have the freedom to innovate, to devise appropriate methods of communication and activities relevant to the needs and capabilities and the concerns of the community.

            Since India became free in 1947, the Indian Society is steadily passing through transformation and modernization. The Indian Society is dichotomously stratified: the ELITE and the FOLK. Both of them have somewhat different religion – moral and socio – cultural norms and values. They are further stratified into sub cultures of castes, occupations, groups, religions and regional communities. As a result of education, caste domination is waving although social stratification on the basis of class and creed still persists. Everyone is imbued with search for fresh fields and pastures a new occupational role. The social mobility of the people is increasing. From traditional closed society, we are moving towards the modern and egalitarian.

            So, the responsibility comes on the shoulders of teachers, who are called the ‘Builders of the Nation’ to make the society capable of accommodating itself with the coming dangers and becoming strong enough to resist the unwelcome or undesired trends.

            As Dr. Radhakrishnan said, “The teacher’s place in the society is of vital importance. He acts as the pivot for the transmission of intellectual traditions and technical skill from generation to generation and help to keep the lamp of civilization burning”.

ROLE OF A TEACHER IN EMERGING INDIAN SOCIETY

“If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”-Abdul Kalam

1.     JOB OF TEACHING

Schools are one of the first places where kid’s behaviour and future educational success is shape. Teachers are carriers of either positive or negative behaviour towards students. The reason why the first year of school is so critical is because kids learn the base of their educational life. Teachers must love their career in order for them to pass enthusiasm, to assists and to provide a warm environment to the students. Teachers are the second mother for the students because students spend a lot of time with their teachers. At the same time a real teacher becomes through many years of training and experiences in the field. The same way, mothers are not born being great mothers but as their experiences with their kids expand they become experts on the field. We know that mothers look the best for their kids and one of their goals is to raise their kids so they can become professionals and pioneers for the society. As a mother teacher’s role toward kids is to give them care, love, respect, lead, instruct and to try to form a safe and pleasant environment at their homes and society.

            Teachers carry out the arduous task of preparing the youth to shoulder the responsibility of the nation. Indeed, no one is more responsible for taking a country forward in the race of modernization, and at the same time imparting character to the personalities of the young, than our very own teachers. While teachers in India have given the country some of the world’s best doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs, thus adding significantly to the growth of the global giant that India is set to become, some academics have gone a step ahead, playing a direct part in the country’s democratic setup.

                        The whole blame of deteriorated state of human values and attitudes is not of education system alone. The society as well as the educators are playing equal role in it. The people of India have a rigid mind of not accepting anything new. Commissions after commission have been finding faults, either with the curriculum teacher or student. Our society implemented to some extent the suggestions of various commissions to raise the financial status of the teachers. But the results of these steps were not effective, the reason being that we are in a transition state and rise in living standards as well as the inflation is a hindrance. The duty consciousness of teachers appears to be lacking in them.

            Centuries back they were the ones who used to make good citizens as well as good rulers. They were totally dedicated towards their jobs and had less to do anything with wordily pleasures. They occupied the highest position in the social system and their words were considered to be full of wisdom. Things deteriorated and so did the role and state of teachers. Today people take this noble profession to be their last resort when they are not able to secure good vocations. These vocations being medicine, engineering, government jobs and private sector. The job teaching is considered to be at the bottom of list of hierarchy of jobs. Thus they are a disgruntled lot who are unaware of their duties and responsibilities and not to do their work religiously.

2.     SIGNIFICANCE OF TEACHING PROFESSION

Educational planning can be successful through the teachers who are active agents to implement the same. Along with the tremendous growth in the opportunities and scope of education, it is necessary to preserve the quality of education. In our country, however, the quality of education could not be maintained mainly due to lack of effective teachers.

In the pyramid of education the teachers is at the apex and controls the objectives of education and his pupils at the same time. Therefore teacher’s dynamicity is always at the root of the success or failure of any plan of education proposed or the policy of education declared by the government. Lately Kothari Commission (1964-66), Education Policy (1968) , Five Year Plan reports on education and the recent New National Policy of Education (1986) have recognized the importance of the position of the teacher. 

Primary school teaching is the single most important profession in the world. Teachers pass on knowledge and values to children, prepare them for further education and for working life and are main contributors to good education. This most important profession however does not get the recognition it deserves. In the developed world, young people don’t want to become a primary school teacher anymore. In most developing countries the profession does not attract qualified and ambitious people because it is poorly remunerated. Gone are the days that a primary school teacher was a highly respected person. To attain the goal of universal and good primary school education, teaching has to become an attractive profession again.

            Teachers are one of the main pillars of a sound and progressive society. They bear the weight and responsibility of teaching, and, apart from parents, are the main source of knowledge and values of children.

            For a child between 6 and 12, there are basically three options: get no primary education, get low quality primary education or get good quality primary education. In spite of our world being immensely rich, the majority of children have to settle for option 1 or 2. At this very moment, over a hundred million children get no primary education at all. And over 500 million of them get it but the quality is low: they have little or no books, their classroom is poorly equipped or simply doesn’t exist or they have a teacher whose level of knowledge hardly surpasses that a 6^th grader or who is not motivated because she earns less than her neighbour who cleans the house of the local landlord.

            The universally subscribed goal that “ by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality” (Declaration of The World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal in 2000 ) can only be achieved if children can have access to motivated and knowledgeable teachers. They are the resource by excellence. The books are important, the pencil and the blackboard are important and so are the chairs to sit on, but there is no teacher to write on the blackboard and to teach reading, math and how to pick up knowledge and values, the goal will never be achieved.

3.     SECURING RIGHT TYPE OF TEACHERS

            It is now universally acknowledged that teachers occupy a pivotal importance in the total educative process. All other factors in education-buildings, equipment, instructional material, organization and allied expenditure-can be of little avail unless there are teachers of the right type. It is expected that only the teachers with necessary academic background, professional competence and personal traits of character can translate into action the widely accepted pedagogical principles which constitute the bedrock of a sound and progressive system of education.

            With the rapid expansion of school education and the phenomenal rise in pupil enrolments, the demand of trained teachers has greatly increased. Accordingly, more and more educated persons are now being attracted towards teaching profession. Some of them belong to the first generation of the educated in their families, and the others have taken this profession more out of necessity and availability rather than out of love or attitude for teaching. Taking advantage of this situation a large number of teacher education institution with meagre facilities and indifferent personnel have sprung up. Asa consequence, the standards of teacher education have gone down.

            For this reason, Kothari Commission, in its recommendations on teacher-education remarked, that the standard of education depends on the quality of teachers. Nowadays, one who does not get service anywhere comes in teaching profession. It is immaterial whether is trained or not. Due to lack of qualified persons, the standard of education is deteriorating every day.

            It is evident from the above discussion that to rise the standard of education, efforts should be made to improve the quality of teachers; which in turn will improve the quality of students. An ineffective teacher is likely to spoil the potential of even a promising student. Therefore, it is important that in a teacher-training programme, care should be taken in selecting candidates for training.

            Though an absolute pre-assessment of effective teaching, rather an effective teacher is not possible, yet efforts had been made to admit such students in the training colleges, through some selection procedure, who in the opinions of educationalists and educational administrators can prove to be effective teachers.

            Since the strength of educational system largely depends upon the quality of its teachers, it is now being increasingly felt that there is no more important matter than that of securing the right kind of people to the profession. This implies that emphasis should be laid on evolving the techniques for selecting the best available teacher potential.

4.      RESPONSIBILITY OF A TEACHER

Teacher, Guru, Ustad is not only a person but also a symbol of God, of Truth, of Purity, & of Beauty. Ancient India has revered teachers as almighty, the ‘Param Brahma ’. He is the creator, the preserver & the Destroyer. He creates ideas & ideals. He preserves the sense of truth, justice & fair play. He destroys evil, both intention and deeds. Though with the passage of time the modus operation of ‘teaching’ has changed, the teacher till date has essentially remained the same. He facilitates the learning in the minds of the taught, catalyzing the chemistry of knowledge in the cauldron of intellect. S/he stimulates the growth & development of values, moral, attitudes & beliefs in body & spirit. He is the true architect of the individual, the society, the nation and the humanity.

            The world is always in a state of flux, with changes taking place all around. Thus it is imperative for the teachers to modify the methods to obtain the maximum outcome of her efforts. The role of the teacher is primarily two folds. The role of a person, helping to construct knowledge and the role of a person transforming personality.

Today, the Effective teacher is one who sometimes sees himself in his students. Therefore a teacher is just like an actor who plays many roles such as;

Ø    A modern teacher is a helping teacher. It is the teacher who through the class room imbibes the feeling of ‘Share and tell’, ‘Give and Take ’, ‘Think and Do’ in the students which is later on generated in the society.

Ø    A modern teacher is always Flexible in his Approach. The modern teacher encourages new trends in the field of education. He is ready to make experiments to make the teaching process effective by keeping in view the new trends, new waves in the modern society.

Vidya is a treasure which never to give decreases by giving, rather increases more and more. And the Teacher is the architect of our future. They are the one -who shows us the right path as someone has rightly said “Teacher is just like a lamp, who burns itself to light others”.

1.     ROLE OF TEACHERS IN STUDENT’S LIFE

            The process of education is a triangular process in which there are three points-the educator, the educands and the subject of education. In order to be able to teach, the educator must establish some relationship with the educands, based on his knowledge of the latter. For this relationship to be meaningful it is essential that the educator himself should be conservant both with the subject he is teaching and the psychology of educands. Education aims at teaching the educand and providing him with some information. Teaching assists the educand in his adaptation to his environment and helps to make him active. Through education, training of the emotions is accompanied by an inspiration to learn. That is teaching is intended to prepare the educand for future life.

            The teacher should be more than a mere skilled performer in a branch of his profession. When the frontiers of knowledge change, the importance and even the validity of what is learnt may not survive. What survives is the discipline of learning and the values acquired in the process. The ultimate values of his professional endeavour bear on the habits of living and thinking. Skills in teaching are, no doubt, important but they should not be taken for granted. The most effective weapon of a teacher is the silent example of his own power.

            Nowadays many people don’t realize their own potentials. Because of that many are so disappointed. Winston Churchill said so about this “Man’s power has boomed in every field, but not on himself.” A teacher has to bring out the best in every child with utmost care and dedication. A friend once told Aurl Das, Principal of Serambur Theological College, “The students you get to teach are asses who are dropouts of other schools”. For this his replay was “Yes. We take the asses and make them into horses.” When teachers pin point one child and say he/she is never going to change. Then, as a teacher, we have failed in our duty to bring out him/her into light. Be able to change the ‘script’ about that particular child. Robert R. Shuller says “the success of a teacher is motivating students to believe that they are smart not stupid ; and developing a self image that will take them to heights of success they never ever dreamt ”.As teachers, encourage children to dream high and help them work hard to make their dream a reality.

            A modern teacher is Good counselor. Teacher’s field is not limited up to covering the academic side but he also performs the role of a counselor for the students and the society. He is considered to be the specialists and highly knowledgeable person. People look up to him as a person who can really give a good piece of advice. The norm for teachers must be nurturing and validating posture via-a-via young people, where every student is treated with dignity and respect, where students are listened to attentively and treated as valuable and capable of learning. It is such an environment that is the most conductive to students learning to love and respect themselves and others.

2.      ROLE OF TEACHER IN SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION   

                        Teachers play an extraordinary part in the lives of children for the formative years of their development. The importance of teachers is something that cannot be understated. Their influence can and will stretch on long after the final bell rings, beyond the walls of the actual school.

            Teachers are mediators, able to hash out and make those who are having an argument have some kind of common ground. Anyone can really just punish the two parties and be done with it, but there will be no lessons that will be learned from that. If a teacher is able to figure out what has happened and help develop understanding, then the youth will be far better off.

     The role of teacher in society is both significant and valuable. It has far-reaching influence on the society he lives in, and no other personality can have an influence more profound than that of a teacher –Shiben Raina (2007). Studies reveal that a hard working teacher is often admired by students and members of the general society. Aside of the academics, students also try to learn their teacher’s mannerisms, modes of dressing, etiquettes, style of conversation and others. For a student to grow up as a responsible citizen, the teacher is needed. After teaching students simple Geometry and Arithmetic, for instance, virtues such as punctuality, truth, hard work, honesty, simplicity, hygiene, patriotism, love and sincerity, obedience, tolerance, etc, must also be propagated. Society needs these values to develop. It makes no sense for one to be intelligent but corrupt. Any education churned out must be holistic and development- oriented. The teacher must be well-resourced to be able to satisfy fully the needs of students and society. There are sectors within the society where the services of the teacher are needed. In the areas of agriculture, commerce, sanitation and health, culture, social welfare, governance, tourism and hospitality, the teacher is important. Teachers have to help the people in need and also sympathize with them. In the present era everyone is so selfish, the plea of the needy is a knell to our eras. Instead of loving friend or colleague, we look at him enemy who is competing with you in the race to success. Say No to this and as a teacher he should impart education for the overall development of a child and also for the growth of the society. The role of teachers in society is both significant and widespread valuable. It has influence in the society he lived in and no other personalities who may have a great influence than teachers.

3.      EMERGING INDIAN SOCIETY 

            Emerging Indian society should be a learning society. We have to be literate, educated and learners since the very outset of creation man has been finding ways and means to make the life easier and comfortable. In selective functions, the education system tends to select students from particular socio-economic strata. The selective character of formal education operates through families according to environment and cultural resources, and through the schools, according to the environment appropriate to the one that obtains in the family of the child. It is widely recognized that formal education plays a vital role in social mobility both horizontal and vertical.

4.     TEACHER’S ROLE IN ECONOMICAL DEVELOPMENT

            All great economists have called for big expenditure on education and spotted at those who would deny the funds required for financing vast programmes of education. They emphasize the role of skills in increasing production and identified education not only as a target but also as an economic development. To ensure economic development it is important that the population as a whole should have a minimum standard of education, which not only means literacy but also education. Literacy by itself has no meaning, unless it is used, and used rightly. We have 100 million literates in this country but their utilization of literacy is poor. The population as a whole should have a minimum level of education, which must involve some understanding of science and technology and the relevance of logic. The essential condition for economic development is the creation of mass literacy and mass education in the essentials and fundamentals of science, technology and logic.

 

CONCLUSION

Teaching is the profession where one can make real contribution to lives of people. No other profession provides such deep personal satisfaction. Teacher is the chief agent in a democratic community’s efforts to improve itself. They are the kingpins who affect the students and in turn the whole society. It is all within their capacity to make a good citizens or people considered to be stigmas on the society, from the unmolded heap of brains. One of the Behaviourist Psychologist Watson has said, “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to being them up in, and I, guarantee to take anyone at random and train him to become any type of specialist”. But at present in India the devoted teachers are not in plenty. Therefore the standards of education are being lowered. Curriculum and the system of education are also to be blamed for this state of affairs.

            In present times when teacher’s pay scales are much better than what they were in past, they are still identified as discontented persons. Most of them look upon teaching as a job for which they pay cheque is only award. They are disillusioned cynical and bitter over the inadequacies and the inconsistencies insofar as their place in the society is concerned. The really tragic teacher is he who feels keenly that he is giving his bets to an unworthy cause, fighting a battle under a flag that he does not honour. Such teachers do not take teaching in its real spirit as the profession demands. We have the tradition of ‘Gurus’ in this country. While the teacher does not replace parents but complements their tasks most parents have not been found equal to their responsibilities. “Nation’s well being depends on teacher’s well being. Our teachers are the custodian of our future.” Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Modern teacher has an important role to play to shape of the future of the country. They are the one who show us the right path as someone has rightly said “Teacher is just like a lamp, who burns itself to light others”.      

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