Profession of primacy

In the famous Bengali movie 'Mahanagar', directed by none other than Satyajit Ray, there is one character of an old man, a retired school teacher. Subrata, the part played by the famous actor Anil Chatterjee, expresses his dejection to his wife over the fact that a teacher who sees and nurtures the intellectual growth of so many students and future professionals, is himself lost in oblivion through years, as the majority hardly takes trouble to remember the old teacher, with emotion. Empathy towards teachers has indeed been missing.

Teachers' Day is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of the great educationist and the second president of our country — Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. He was born in 1888, and throughout his life, endeavoured for the cause of education. He was a teacher who, after his exposure to Oxford, had served Indian academic institutions like Calcutta University. Radhakrishnan was a philosopher who tried to combine education with social order. No wonder the first Education Commission of free India, set up in 1948, was named after him. However, we are good at celebrating dates rather than realising the essence of that celebration. This year as well, students will gather in different domains and standards to show their respectful feelings for the teachers. The irony is, the kind of euphoria that Teachers' Day generates, is hardly professed when it comes to actual belief and behaviour on other days. We all consider, at least theoretically, that teaching is the mother of all vocations. Even then, teaching as a profession is yet to attain elitism. Most of the parents and guardians do not place the profession of teaching much higher when they frame their choices for the future of their children. Many consider it to be casual, as if anybody could be a teacher. Also, over years, the teaching profession has remained underpaid. Teachers who have ensured the economic prosperity of prospective professionals are themselves subjected to a strict budget of living, devoid of material affluence. Needs have arisen for regrouping our thoughts about teachers.

Since teaching deals with human resource development, it controls the psycho-social parameters of our living. Change is the only constant; accordingly, teachers have also faced challenges to accommodate themselves with the changing scenario. The old system of education had been quite different from the modern system, particularly in the cognisance of child-centric application of education. New methods have developed along with new light of research in the field of academics. One thing, however, has remained almost unchanged, linking the past and the present — it is looking into the character and personality of a teacher. It is here that the modern education system in the Covid aftermath seems to be more contending to a teacher. Teachers in many situations are compelled to adopt digital tools and virtual reality to impart learning. It is not so easy, for we all know that nothing can substitute the conventional classroom mode of education where a teacher along with his curriculum of teaching can more effectively influence the behavioral pattern of a student. We hear about 'work from home'; many employees of various disciplines are executing it. To a teacher it is a different ballgame. He is thrown to various riddles when he cannot have eye-to-eye contact with a primary student. The teacher also gets concerned when a child with special needs, quite naturally, faces difficulty paying attention to the teacher. Yet, the show must go on. The teacher readily modifies his mind first and then his means to meet the new demands of learning. Today, even when classes have resumed in the original form, the disposition of the students have undergone a change. Many students in higher standards of studies are still preferring e-education and online examination. So, not only the teachers are up to the task of explaining lessons; they are also trying to rehabilitate many students in the original track of education. This is no mean task. The teachers need to throw all force into the tendency of the taught.

The relationship between students and teachers have also changed. The role of teachers has transgressed the corridors of the classroom. There are so many non-academic duties that a teacher needs to perform. All these are, of course, for the benefit of the students. Different government Initiatives and social security schemes, aimed at providing better access to education, are executed with official requirements at the institutional level by many teachers. Since a teacher is also supposed to be an educator, constant improvement of the individual self in terms of knowledge and behaviour is also a demand of the profession. In an era of digital media, a teacher is not just a trainer but also a guide. With all these summonses, a teacher conquers eternity, you never know when his influence begins.

The writer is an educator from Kolkata. Views expressed are personal