CORPORAL PUNISHMENT - THE BEGINNING OF THE END TO LEARNING

WHEN children are in conflict with law, they show a mirror to the roles teachers, parents and family members played in their upbringing.

- BALA CHAUHAN

It is the teacher after parents, who shapes the formative years of a child and can become their guiding light to new, hitherto unexplored horizons. Teaching is not just another job with a paycheck at the beginning or end of the month. It is a dedication to children and their cognitive growth.

Yet, administrators, especially in government primary schools, appear to have given little thought to hiring teachers beyond their mandatory educational qualifications and basic training. Such an approach is neither practical or child centric. As for private schools, teachers are in a mad race to achieve the target of 100% pass percentage. For most of them, dealing with slow learners is an irritation, which has consequences.

Not every university topper can make a good teacher. To teach, the person should not only know the subject but also have knowledge and the skillset to make students active learners. When teachers with no skills or commitment to contribute to the children's development enter the profession with their own baggage of ideological stereotypes, mundane, familial, financial and health issues etc., it hurts the entire ecosystem.

Two recent incidents in Uttar Pradesh and J&K in which two teachers gave their students harsh physical punishment shook the nation's conscience.

The violence against the two students was the regurgitation of the collective societal communal hatred and exclusivity, which the two teachers manifested by their actions. Such teachers ought not to have been in the profession in the first place.

How many of them are on the payrolls of schools in the country is anybody’s guess. That data is not something an RTI application would throw up. Surely all teachers, barring those who came in through fraudulent means, would have had the required academic qualifications and training. Yet, they don't belong.