Education & the money plant culture in corporate times

As an old timer, I am prone to compare the lot of the teachers of yore with the teachers of today.

- DR. JERNAIL S ANANAD

There is a sea change in the social setup and as a result, the educational structures too have undergone transformation.

In those times, the focus of education was on creating young men charged with idealism. But the modern world thinks it needs young men charged with ambition.

Those times believed in goodness, while the modern times believe in smartness, which means everything except honesty and integrity, which slow human growth.

In the past, we could draw a vertical line between right and wrong. But, in modern times, this line remains blurred and is often found shifting.

In those times, people looked upon teaching as a noble profession. However, things started deteriorating when the idea of competition started gaining ground, giving rise to the tuition culture.

Teachers became professionals and facilitators. Now, educational institutions are only Convocation Centres, whereas real studies are conducted by the tuition tycoons.

THEY BUILT HUMAN BEINGS: WE BUILD CAREERS

As per the educational policy of the fifties and sixties, teachers had time to visit libraries. They had holidays, summer vacation, autumn vacation and winter vacation to recoup their energies.

They had time to indulge in discussions, and intellectual exchanges. There used to be an intellectual culture in colleges and universities.

By 2000, the tuition culture had eaten into the intellectual culture after which its aura of respectability and idealism was gradually lost.

Thereafter, the governments became wiser and started pulling the rug from under the feet of the teaching community.

FROM A NOBLE PROFESSION TO BUSINESS AS USUAL

Due to tuition culture, teaching lost its lofty idealism and came to be regarded as business as usual.