A society that sees and understands education as acquisition of knowledge necessary to attain material success shall always fail to understand that education is not a “product” and teachers and educational institutions are not supposed to sell it.
However, what has happened so far is the idea of education that broods over the mind of our youngsters and their anxiety-ridden parents is the utilitarian education that starts with coaching centres to professional educational hubs. The image of a teacher is no more of a healer who can help the soul of a lesser capable individual become a leader in the chosen field of choice or a communicator who can disseminate the idea and essence of the subject coupled with the philosophy of being more humane with each move. We should understand that education should be about man-making and the teacher should be a messenger of man-making education.
We should dare to imagine and understand that a teacher is not just a subject expert who merely teaches history, science or mathematics, etc., but does something more essential and meaningful. The teacher is the person who makes the young learner to understand his/her uniqueness and innate abilities and also acts as a catalyst for the student to achieve what he or she aspires to get in life. Much to the contrary of what we know and believe, a teacher is neither a programmed device that merely plays the curriculum nor an instrument of disciplining and punishing the students. It is essential not to see education as the process that culminates in examination and grading and the teacher as an enforcer of such a process.
The role of a teacher, instead, is much bigger than this as one who instils creative ability and one who rekindles the learner’s faith in his/her uniqueness. A teacher conveys the most important message of life and makes the learner understand that he need not be like someone else, rather fully bloom as the individual that he/she is but with deep understanding of the virtues of life and humanity.
It is also important for the teacher to help the learner augment his/her power of observation, strengthen the ability to think and reflect and inculcate the necessary desire to be an instrument of social change.
For this, the teacher must understand that there is a point, after which he should stop sermonising and filling the mind of the student with a heavy burden of bookish knowledge and focus in the art of man-making through education, which, according to Swami Vivekananda, is the harmonious development of the body, mind and soul. By this, the student becomes a lifelong learner continually mastering the art of living.
However, fact remains we cannot achieve the goal of imparting man-making education until and unless we ensure that a proper environment is established to achieve it. First, we need to dismantle the huge disparity between the poor and the rich with regard to the quality of education imparted and access to educational institutions. Secondly, there has to be a change of approach amongst the fancy educational institutes of technology and management which portray education primarily as a breeding ground of skilled workforce to cater to the needs of the corporate world.
It is time we made the society understand that we cannot move ahead by celebrating the glam and glitz of those in power either in industry, politics, cinema or sports and pursue to achieve their statures and standing by ignoring the need for democratising quality education and creating a class of teachers imparting man-making education surviving on quality remuneration and dignity.
It is time we looked up to the great teachers like Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who inspired us and made us believe that a teacher carries the lamp of truth and true social change can be achieved only through education and the efforts of a dedicated teacher.
(The writer is a lawyer, public policy expert and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law and Media Studies at School of Mass Communication, KIIT Deemed to be University. He can be reached at sjyotiranjan3@gmail.com. This article is a tribute to all my teachers and my father and first teacher Late Dr Prasanta Kumar Sethi)