Teaching Profession deserves better appreciation!
Medicine and engineering have been the first choice of every student when it comes to the idea of having an extraordinary career. This trend is still very much in vogue in our society though the newer career options available have made an ultimate impact on the mindset of our children. Medicine and engineering are indeed respectful careers but most of the doctors and engineers try their luck in civil services as well. Don’t medicine and engineering fields suffice enough for them to win name, fame and wealth? Aren’t doctors and engineers paid well?
Yes, they are but they probably lack that charisma which an IAS and KAS officer enjoys. So, it is proven that this service is the elitist service of in the minds and hearts of masses here and most of the promising students are inclined towards it. Even corporate sector is not a bad choice for this best lot of our society as this sector has lucrative careers to offer for capable people. We have thousands of our talented people serving in different countries of the world.
Here, I don’t want to take you to the world of IAS and KAS but to the world where such ambitions are shaped. Yes, I mean the mother of all the professions, i.e ‘teaching’. Our country and state is crying for the quality workforce in education department as we lack the desired workforce when it comes to teaching, particularly at the school level. The best from our colleges and universities are not attracted towards this job because they have better options available to explore and why should we expect them to choose a job that pays them comparatively less and has nearly no glamour attached to it! When medicine, engineering and civil services can help them to earn more, and that too in a better way, with a lot of respect and dignity, then how can they be attracted to a job that pays much lesser.
Something is surely wrong with our system. Had teaching been at par with civil services, I am sure that there could have been the desired quality workforce in our schools and many high profile names of our bureaucracy could have been in teaching line. It won’t hit our administration and bureaucracy because fertile brains can produce more quality workforce required at bureaucratic levels as well.
The tale of our teacher is not that encouraging. When a medical or an engineering aspirant fails to find a place in a medical college or engineering college, he/she then moves to other options through different competitive examinations. When all the doors are closed for such people then they think of ‘teaching’ as an option. Thus, it is a proven fact that teaching is not the priority of our fertile youth given the status of teacher in our system and society. It is an irony to see that a Patwari is preferred over a teacher in our social system. Elite service status can help to remove this stigma etched to teaching profession.
Looking at the scenario, one can say that the best can’t be expected in our schools in the chairs of teachers. I am not blaming teachers for being incompetent or inefficient but the system in vogue for the recruitment of teachers. We have the best possible brains available in the schools but the scenario could have been different if this profession had been our top most service in terms of career prospective. Though we witness a stiff competition when it comes to teacher’s recruitment prggrammes but a special lot don’t bother to take part in this competition. They probably know that this profession won’t suffice their aspirations.
We often compare our schooling with European Schooling but never give a serious thought to the fact that their standards of selection of a teacher is altogether different from our system of recruitment. They employ the best in their schools and their Schools are equipped with modern technologies to draw the best from their children. Teachers available in these schools are the best among the available workforce while as our schools lack basic pre-requisites like good quality furnishing, heating arrangements, fans, libraries, science laboratories etc.
When will teaching profession be at par with our elite services, nobody can say! Our politicians and leaders don’t seem to have the caliber to bring the desired changes and it will take no less than a stateman to initiate such changes and bring the teaching profession at par with civil services etc.
The writer is a Teacher, Columnist, Poet, Orator and Social activist. He can be reached at [email protected]
