The journey of every doctor, engineer,
scientist, astronaut, technocrat, programmer, architect, accountant, analyst
and all other professions begins under the watchful eyes of the most important person
– Teacher.
And that is the reason ‘Teacher’s Day’ is
celebrated in over hundred countries. The day is celebrated as a token of
gratitude or appreciation for these architects of character who mould a child
to be a man or a woman of substance, calibre or essence.
Sadly chief minister Manohar Parrikar who
holds the Education portfolio too, turned this year’s Teacher’s Day on its head
and made it a ‘Black Day’. Instead of addressing the teachers, he was urging
the students to complain to him about teachers not answering their questions
through emails.
How could a chief minister even think so
loudly. Instead of asking the students to see things in a positive perspective
he was instilling negative thoughts in the frail young minds making teachers
vulnerable.
As an education minister it was his bounden
duty to boost the morale of the teachers’ fraternity while urging them to reach
higher goals and standards so their products (students) become the shining
lights of Goa and this country. But no,
Parrikar speech was more like political rhetoric during election meetings,
maybe a hangover from the recent conclusion of campaigning for bye-election,
wherein he was the candidate.
In the back of his mind, he should have remembered
that Goa is second in literacy rating in the country. Parrikar’s duty should
have been to inspire, motivate, enthuse confidence in the teacher to achieve
the first place in the country but sadly he was discouraging teachers and
encouraging students to have a right over them.
He should have realized that behind every
successful man and woman, there is an unsung hero – a teacher who silently
enjoys tears of happiness when she sees her students succeed, but he was
killing this concept.
One would expect from a chief minister that
the teachers be asked for their inputs to improve the syllabus, to improve the
standard of education and overall development of students, his advice should
have been to urge experienced teachers to guide young teachers, his advice to
young teachers should have been to learn from the vast experience in handling
students from the older teachers, his advice should have been to be abreast of
the fast growing technology, teaching and guiding methods.
More-over the chief minister’s advice should
have been to be cautious of corporal punishment but he went off on a tangent
putting the noose around the teacher’s necks and giving the other end to the
students.
And why does the chief minister of a State
need to intervene in such matters when there is a principal and
headmaster/headmistress, PTA, deputy director and director of education. There
are well set checks and balances which can handle issues in schools.
How can the chief minister even think of make
such utterances to the students when he himself is burdened with key portfolios
like finance, home, education besides others.
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| Nisser Dias |
He should have asked the teachers ways and
means to improve government run schools which are in shambles. He should be concerned
and concentrate of revolutionizing the infrastructure in the government schools.
These schools are run in ram shackled rooms where one teacher teaches two
standards in the same room. These schools are where the roof is collapsing. These
schools where there are no toilets and playgrounds. The list can be never
ending. Successive governments have not anything about it, this is where his
focus is required.
Alas! It is rather a sorry state of affairs
where the administration is run by rhetoric and false promises but not by deeds
and action.
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