I belong to rural India and have deeper understanding of that part of my country. And I feel that many things changed in last decade. Most of my schooling has happened in Government schools and I moved out of Senior Secondary school in 2001 to pursue engineering. That was a time, when most of the village kids were going to government schools for primary education and 90% of them would continue next studies in government schools only. Teachers in goverment school were those folks, who actually wanted to become teacher and cleared different exams & interviews. This may sound unrealistic in India, as we can say that many of the shifarishi folks must be becoming teachers. But the proportion must be minimal and here I am talking about Himachal Pradesh. But idea of sharing this information is that most of the government teachers of that time were sort of ideal for teaching kids who would define the future of our country.
The same thought is shared by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam with some different examples, which I would try to share in the end of this blog-post.
So 10 years back, most of the rural students of states like Himachal Pradesh were going to Government Schools for education. And if we see current scenario, least fraction of students are joining Government Schools. Now there are multiple factors which are driving this change in our country. One of the primary reason was NO CHANGE in government schools. These schools never bothered to see how education systems are changing and how technology & other things are important for kids coming to a school. These schools kept on focusing academics, marks, Pass/Fail, %age etc. There were very few kids who were doing good in other activities. Although, many of the teachers initiated some unique ideas which sustained only during the tenure of that particular teacher.
With time, many private institutions came up with Private schools and they marketed well the shortcomings of government schools. Of-course, there is no marketing channel for government schools and slowly private schools in rural areas started becoming more popular. There were many reasons, but all of them were true only on paper. These private schools started doing many other activities apart from academic practices in the campus.
On of the reason for the shift was also driven by our own political parties. Privatization brought good amount of money for politicians, they always supported processes which ease the job of private schools with any control. So it became very easy to open an approved school with very basic infrastructure.
Now let's look at the Teachers we have in these private schools and their motivation level. Most of these teachers get salary of 3000 to 8000 rupees and most of them are below 5000. With such high inflation in India, can you imagine how a teacher in these schools must be running his/her home? What the motivation would be? This is one of the topic, where we can keep questioning different things & type of folks who are teaching kids of this country.
To me, Education system is rural India is very immature and it's more like imitating fashion-trends. Most of the private schools in rural India are trying to imitate good brands in urban India without resources, which is sort of funny. At this point of time, I am restless and feel like quitting this post as there is no end to the fundamental problems our education system has.
Now let's look at the Teacher joining government schools these days. There is deep political influence which is hard to prove in our current system. Since there is so much political influence, most of the times these folks spend time in Politics rather than teaching. Although there are exceptions everywhere, but in Education system exceptions should happen other way round.
If we only look at the salaries teachers are getting in schools, we get an indication that which slot is teaching kids of our nation. I don't think that I need to define the term 'slot' further. And Urban schools are doing the same as far as salaries are concerned. Most of the schools get signatures of teachers on different salary as compared the real amount they give. A Teacher who put signature on 15000, gets almost 3000-5000 rs. and that's too in branded schools which everyone of us are aware of.
At times, I feel really bad for our country which is loosing on every front. I know, these are very pessimistic thoughts but somehow these factors make us think that why bad trends are increasing in every aspect of our life. In our day to day discussions, we feel people who are subject masters are doing some specialized jobs instead of teaching. In our country, there are very few educational institutions which offer good compensation for teachers/professors/coaches. And in other countries, many of the good Indian Teachers are in high demand and of-course, they are moving out for obvious reasons. Education is one of the main focus for many of the state governments but unfortunately fundamental things are not getting focused.
It's a very lengthy topic and we can keep discussing it for a long time. I didn't want to write such a sad post on Teacher's Day, but these thoughts have caught me and hope that things will happen for good in future.
A very thought provoking post... and beginning of a good discussion..
Smriti - We are so busy in our day to day life that many of the changes are simply ignored. And we think back, we get some surprises and shocks.
At least in Rural India, I see education institutions becoming a fashion icons and even parents are hardly concerned about the way their Kids are being taught & who is teaching them !
That is one side, the other side is of parents. I have a feeling that today's parents are probably much more concerned about kids' education (rural + urban) then in past. May be this ever growing pressure, cut throat competition, more reliance on jobs (more people are working then ever before) is making all of us more engaged here.
Finally, I guess overall situation is improving (at a macro level).
Thanks for your views Nandan !
Definitely, there is huge gap in quality when we compare government & private schools in urban regions.
But in rural areas, I think scenario is completely different. There are only few private schools which are offering better quality education and others are making profits because of this fashion of joining private schools. The biggest '?' comes to my mind when I look at the profiles of teachers these private schools have.
Nandan, I am teaching in a super elite school, where the students are children of the elite of Gurgaon, the businessmen and the higher level Technocrats. But most of the parents don't have time for their kids. They are very concerned about the school when they seek admissions, but after that, they don't even bother what the kids are doing or what or how they are taught for years together. The teachers in these super elite schools are more like baby sitters to even the 12th grade students, while their parents are busy with their careers of being machines. But their parenthood does awaken up once in a while, when they come to the school and blast off the teachers, principals, etc. in the most arrogant possible manner. Let me tell you that these parents outnumber the concerned parents. Imagine the PTM attendance going as low as the voter turn out.
Regarding the quality of teachers in the private schools, let me give you an indication. I studied B Ed from one of the country's top most institutes. Apart from around 10 students who did their B Ed along with me, others were the left overs from all other professions. And these left overs are working as teachers in some of the Presidiums, G D Goenkas, etc. It is really a pathetic situation out there, if the nation's top Institute for Education can produce only junk, and that is the best that is available for your kids.
Time that we get some skilled people to join this profession, and not the BPOs. But, who pays them, and how can they get money to pay them?
Regarding the Govt Schools, CTET is a beautiful way of reducing the quality even further. CTET is a mandatory qualifying certificate that you need for getting into Govt Schools, who will pay you as per the 6th pay commission, which is a decent salary, of around 4.3LPA at an entry level. But, this test is made in such a way that around 300-400 people clear it every season. And the Govt. can happily get part time/guest/ad hoc teachers from agencies at low cost, and siphon off more money. An organized crime, which will go on for another 15-20 years until AAP eyes it for their mileage.
To top it, the non-detention policy is the biggest culprit. With this policy in action, students just enrol into schools and are on rolls till 8th class, and collect their daily midday meal packets, whatever is inside it, and their annual pair of uniforms. At the end of 8th class, they are counted as a literate Indian without actually being able to read/write. Doesn't matter if they eventually end up being construction workers, or whatever, but they have fed into our politicians' agenda. This also means that the classroom culture is full of goondaism, as the teachers really have nothing other than physical means of conditioning the students.
A very relevant post on the occasion of Teacher's Day. It's quite odd that teachers are paid a pittance by the private schools in many places, when teaching should be considered a valuable profession: after all, teachers mould personalities of children - not just teach subjects.