Teacher’s Day celebrations should not last for a day

The process of celebrating the birthday of former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan as 'Teacher's Day' started in 1967, has now taken the form of a celebration in school-colleges. Cultural programs are held on this day and songs of teachers' glory are sung. Meanwhile, we have forgotten what the concept behind the suggestion of celebrating Teacher's Day would have been? Come amidst the fanfare of Teachers' Day being celebrated all over the country, just think how much respect is given to education and teacher's profession in our society today? Do we meet any of our old teachers today as much emotion as we would when we meet a leader, actor, cricket star, dancer, singer or saint? How many in our younger generation would like to become teachers? Are we not indifferent to professions like teachers, writers and scientists?

The Indian economy has recently reached number five in the world on the basis of gross national production. In the next few years we hope to reach the third position as well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of making the Indian economy a five trillion dollar economy by 2024. Would this be possible without major qualitative changes and reforms in the education system? The fourth industrial revolution is knocking at our doors, but our current education system is still doing the exercise in accordance with the employment structure born of the second industrial revolution in the 19th century. In the last decade, there have been such epoch-making changes in the field of technology that globally everything is changing in industries, businesses, markets, society, education, media and politics. This 'everything' is happening so fast that sometimes we feel that we are reading a scientific novel, dreaming or watching a movie like Hollywood's Avenger.

The information revolution played a big role in changing the world, but the fourth industrial revolution is going to bring such big changes which no one can imagine. But are our politicians, policy makers, teachers and students aware of the harsh truth that most of the jobs available today will be over by the year 2030 and the education, courses, tools, teachers and teachers required for the preparation of new jobs will be created. We do not have the methods. Today, there is a lot of discussion on education globally as per the fourth industrial revolution, which can be broadly called the fourth educational revolution. By the year 2030, the teacher's profession in the world is not going to end, but it is certain that there will be major changes in the importance and role of the teacher.

After independence, Indian society has steadily lost its loyalty to values ​​like knowledge science, equality, character-building, social harmony and social concerns. On the contrary, negative values ​​like corruption, Dhanlipsa, selfishness, cunning and opportunism continued to dominate our society. This period also saw continuous erosion in the professional commitments and qualifications of teachers. In the early decades after independence, teachers' working conditions and salary allowances were lower than in other occupations. As a result, primary, school and college-university teachers' organizations throughout the country mobilized teachers and made frequent movements. Teachers were nominated in political parties, legislatures and were allowed to contest elections. While the movements of teachers' unions improved their economic condition, on the other hand, they were seen to be constantly alienated from the advancement of education. Are national and regional associations related to teachers of school, college and university not responsible for the apathy of teachers towards education?

In the last three decades, with the implementation of the recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission to the Seventh Pay Commission, the pay scale of teachers like government employees has increased continuously. In 1977, a lecturer of a degree college used to get a monthly salary of around thousand rupees, which has gone up to about 80,000 rupees after the implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, ie 80 times in 42 years. The reason for the decline in the prestige of teachers in the society is due to improvement in their economic status as well as a decrease in their professional commitment. Not to take classes even for 100 days during the academic session in well-known universities of many states of the country, this would be termed as a side effect.

In the last 73 years, many policies and programs related to education and the profession of teachers have been formulated. Seven times the pay scale of teachers was improved, but neither there was any major change in education nor the profession of teacher got any special importance in the society. One of the main reasons for this is that the direction of all these changes was from top to bottom and teachers were not made the axis of education system. It is assumed that a teacher is just a part of a larger system, which does exactly what a part has to do when the machine is turned on. Now, India's school education is run by about 90 lakh government teachers, who are inadequate. . We will need at least 20 lakh additional teachers, only then schooling will go smoothly. An important suggestion is also to abolish the system of ad hoc teachers or para teachers, so that all teachers can get the same conditions of service. Apart from school education, more than 12 lakh teachers are employed in our higher education, who are the fortune-makers of four crore youth. Obviously, the picture of the future of modern India will be made by the hands of these 12 crore teachers. But this will be possible only when we understand that they should have a central role in making any major changes in education successful