In the Changing times, Teachers will have to be Evaluated Afresh

In the Changing times, Teachers will have to be Evaluated Afresh

By Vijay Garg 

Teachers' Day is also celebrated with pomp in all the schools, colleges and universities of the country. But have we, as envisioned by Dr.Radhakrishnan, been able to give teachers and their profession the respect they deserved, even after years? The Fourth Industrial Revolution is knocking at our door, but our current education system is still operating according to the employment structure created by the First Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.

Celebrating Teachers’ Day today, we have to think deeply whether our educational institutions are aware about this fourth industrial revolution? Our policy makers, teachers and students must be aware that by 2030 most of the existing jobs will be lost and the curriculum, equipment, teachers and teaching methods needed to prepare for the new ones that will be created are not available.

In fact, today there is a lot of discussion about 'Education 4.0' in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution globally, which is broadly known as the Fourth Educational Revolution.  A revolution can be named. The profession of teachers is not going to end in the world by the year 2030, but there will definitely be a big change in their importance and role. The biggest change can be that the task of education will not only be to share knowledge by giving lectures but also to show the way to the future as a coach, mentor or friend to the younger generation. That is why, instead of considering Teachers’ Day as a festive formality, we should think that what is the meaning and concern of being a teacher?

Society's perception about teachers last 75 years:  How this changed in the world can be seen in the characterization of teacher characters in our literature and films. Writers of the 20th century, such as Premchand, Sarat Chandra, Bankim Chandra, Rabindranath Tagore, etc., have portrayed teachers in a very positive manner in their writings. Indian films also initially presented teachers ideally. But over the past decades, teachers have been portrayed as more or less ridiculous characters in films.

Indian Sociology, Character Building, Social Harmony and Social Science  continue to lose allegiance to values ​​such as concern, leading to negative values ​​such as corruption, money-laundering and opportunism. This period has seen a continuous erosion in the professional commitments of teachers. The situation is that in many states of the country, many degree colleges and university campuses do not study for even 100 days. Today the number of students pursuing higher education is said to be about 3.80 crore. But there is also a lack of necessary resources to teach these students.  Imagine, what will be the scenario when the number of students in higher education will reach 80 million by the year 2030? According to the HRD Ministry report (2018), at present there are about 15 lakh teachers working in colleges-universities in the country. According to a survey, 40 percent of the teachers’ vacancies in state universities and 35 percent of teachers in central universities are lying vacant. Clearly, Indian society and government will have to re-evaluate the role of teachers. Teachers also need to introspect. The National Policy on Education states that teachers are our nation builders. Teachers should be given high standard of respect and standard of living again, so that the best young talents can be inspired to become teachers. Are we in a position to give them a respectable place in the Indian society and will we be able to train and inspire them afresh for the knowledge-oriented society of the 21st century? We have to find the answer ourselves. 

Writer is a retired principal and columnist