The mediocre teacher tells
The good teacher explains
The superior teacher demonstrates
The Great teacher inspires!!
Back in the beginning of the 21st century, when I was in school, I remember our biology teacher explaining Respiration in Fish. She was a very charismatic teacher and explained most concepts in a very concise way which she holds as second nature to her as a very experienced teacher should. During that particular lesson, at one point she said "fish breathe through their gills and make use of oxygen and release carbon-dioxide" and she kept going.
After the lesson was done she asked us if we had any questions, and I raised my hand. And asked her this. " If water is H2O, How can fish release CO2 and what happens to all the missing Hydrogen in that case? Instead, they should making use of O2 and release Hydrogen and since Hydrogen is unstable when it's monoatomic, they must release H2. Why is that not happening? "
Instead of an "Answer" or an "I don't know and will tell you later" , I got a sound scolding about how I was wasting the time of the class. I was kind of bummed and I went home that way because in the end, I didn't know the answer and was perplexed about why I got scolded for asking a question.
Later I asked one of my older friends who was helping me study the same, and she told me she doesn't know and will find out and after a couple of days she said, "It's the Dissolved oxygen that the fish breathe and not the O2 in H2O and fish can't break the bond in H2O and H2O is released as it is and along with it, CO2". I still remember the whole episode to this day because it meant so much. Such a difference in approach! I remember that moment even today.
But what about the other side of the field? How does a typical teacher's perspective differ from what is written above? Let's start off from how a person starts his or her life as a teacher. The eligibility criteria of becoming a school teacher is B.Ed. Anyone who does this and has a few networking skills can become a teacher in a specific field of their choice depending on interests or experience and expertise in that field.
Let's take an example of my own school in which I studied. It's not a top end school but a rather average one. A newly joined teacher can command a salary of about 6000 to 7000 Indian Rupees( about $150 in U.S dollars). This would increase as the teacher gains experience. Typically they are allocated 5 classes per day which last upto 45 minutes. Apart from teaching the class, they need to grade homeworks, assignments, Unit tests, and everyday make notes for preparing for the next day's class. All this can be done ideally, within the 9AM to 4PM.
However, this is unfortunately not true in most cases. Every teacher you come across needs to do their "homework" of preparing for the next day, for atleast 1 hour everyday at their home. And each class has about 40 students. If you imagine how things might go in this scenario, you will see that the passion of teaching is overcome by the sluggish monotony of an everyday job. And this is the apathetic situation plaguing the Indian schooling system.
Each new lesson a child learns is something that he or she has never came across before in their life. And each new lesson is to be taught with such enthusiasm that the child is captivated by wonder of that new concept they are being taught for they must use these concepts in their near or far future. However, most of the children learn their concepts for getting an A in their exams and never to see that subject ever again in life.
For the time being, let's leave the math, and science part. How about social studies? How about history of the country and civics where they are taught what democracy is all about and how important each individual's contribution is to the voting system? How about the concept of civil liberties and equality? Are these concepts to be learned for ultimately getting an A and to be forgotten for the rest of their lives or are these concepts to be ingrained into their minds so that they turn into good citizens for the country in the future?
The dangers of the above are far reaching. A kid learns about civic sense in school and once he comes out of school, the autorickshaw he is traveling in to get home everyday is blocked by heavy weight thugs from the Autorickshaw union and forced to abandon the kids because there is an "Auto Strike" to protest the Government's decision to increase the gas price by 5 Paise (2 cents). This is a real scenario. What would a kid learn from this apart from feeling that forcing your opinion on vulnerable individuals is the best way to get your opinion across? What does a teacher need to do about this? And does the typical teacher has the capability, the enthusiasm and even if they do, do they have the will to do it for the peanuts they are getting paid every month?
This situation is grossly unacceptable in a country where a billion people live and a fifth(20%) of the country are school going children. We havve the need in these times to look at successful democratic free societies and learn from them how they are dealing with their schooling system and make adjustments at home.
Sweden, one of the top countries for the "Happiest people in the world" has something to offer us. As stated, it always tops among the happiest countries in the world, and the highest percapita, highest civil liberties, and highest in salaris paid to teachers.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D) has released an abundant number of statistics for teacher salaries, the amount of hours teachers work in developing countries and others. With an increasing need for creating sane thinking, law abiding good samaritan citizens for future India, we have the dire need to introspect at some statistics below.
Comparing each country’s teacher salaries to the wealth of that country makes United States educational salaries appear lower. In the United States, a teacher with 15 years of experience makes a salary that is 96 percent of the country’s gross domestic product per capita. Across the O.E.C.D., a teacher of equivalent experience makes 117 percent of G.D.P. per capita. At the high end of the scale, in Korea, the average teacher at this level makes a full 221 percent of the country’s G.D.P. per capita.
India's estimates look very decent after all, in this scale. An Indian school teacher typically makes around 96000 INR and it's ratio to India's GDP per capita (~87000 INR) is about 110.3% nearly equal to that of the United States.
Now if we consider the amount of salary teachers get all over the world, India doesn't even seem to be having a footprint on the radar. An average teacher who worked for 15 years typically gets 15,000 INR a month which equals to about around 180,000 INR ( USD 3000). American teachers’ pay is more middling. The average public primary-school teacher who has worked 15 years and has received the minimum amount of training, for example, earns $43,633, compared to the O.E.C.D. average of $39,007. Considering the socio-economic situation and the economic growth and percapita over every field in India, this should not be of much concern but it benefits to look at the statistics so that we can guage how much importance a country gives for education.
Coupled with inflation and rising prices, it is more lucrative for teachers to establish their own "Tutorials" as they normally do within the comfort of their homes to teach children as additional help during after school hours, and also to teach at "Training centres" for IIT and other competitive examps that the students might face years after graduating 10th standard. Such lucrative offers coupled with less emphasis during mainstream schooling system, diminishes the need for offering quality education in schools.
The government needs to pay attention to these statistics and they need to address this problem immediately. Otherwise, we keep graduating millions of students every year, but only make a handful of good citizens. The quality of education overseas is measured in the civic sense, critical thinking abilities, courtesy towards fellow citizens, good communication skills but not the A plus grades in STEM subjects. Though they result in landing a good job in technology, which India and China always top in demographics, they fail to make good citizens which the longterm future of any country depends on.
What we desperately need are, people who think critically, people who understand individual civil liberties and who respect their own and their neighbors rights, people who believe in equal rights to women, people who believe freedom of expression and freedom of speech.
If we have such ambitious goals which the free western society has already achieved, we need to work for it and the buck starts at how we train teachers and how the teachers train their students.
And If you are a teacher, please aim to be the great teacher. Justice will be served on the long run when good citizens are made and today's teachers have a great responsibility on their shoulders. Every child deserves being taught by the great one. Happy teachers day!
Rohit A Venkata
The good teacher explains
The superior teacher demonstrates
The Great teacher inspires!!
Back in the beginning of the 21st century, when I was in school, I remember our biology teacher explaining Respiration in Fish. She was a very charismatic teacher and explained most concepts in a very concise way which she holds as second nature to her as a very experienced teacher should. During that particular lesson, at one point she said "fish breathe through their gills and make use of oxygen and release carbon-dioxide" and she kept going.
After the lesson was done she asked us if we had any questions, and I raised my hand. And asked her this. " If water is H2O, How can fish release CO2 and what happens to all the missing Hydrogen in that case? Instead, they should making use of O2 and release Hydrogen and since Hydrogen is unstable when it's monoatomic, they must release H2. Why is that not happening? "
Instead of an "Answer" or an "I don't know and will tell you later" , I got a sound scolding about how I was wasting the time of the class. I was kind of bummed and I went home that way because in the end, I didn't know the answer and was perplexed about why I got scolded for asking a question.
Later I asked one of my older friends who was helping me study the same, and she told me she doesn't know and will find out and after a couple of days she said, "It's the Dissolved oxygen that the fish breathe and not the O2 in H2O and fish can't break the bond in H2O and H2O is released as it is and along with it, CO2". I still remember the whole episode to this day because it meant so much. Such a difference in approach! I remember that moment even today.
But what about the other side of the field? How does a typical teacher's perspective differ from what is written above? Let's start off from how a person starts his or her life as a teacher. The eligibility criteria of becoming a school teacher is B.Ed. Anyone who does this and has a few networking skills can become a teacher in a specific field of their choice depending on interests or experience and expertise in that field.
Let's take an example of my own school in which I studied. It's not a top end school but a rather average one. A newly joined teacher can command a salary of about 6000 to 7000 Indian Rupees( about $150 in U.S dollars). This would increase as the teacher gains experience. Typically they are allocated 5 classes per day which last upto 45 minutes. Apart from teaching the class, they need to grade homeworks, assignments, Unit tests, and everyday make notes for preparing for the next day's class. All this can be done ideally, within the 9AM to 4PM.
However, this is unfortunately not true in most cases. Every teacher you come across needs to do their "homework" of preparing for the next day, for atleast 1 hour everyday at their home. And each class has about 40 students. If you imagine how things might go in this scenario, you will see that the passion of teaching is overcome by the sluggish monotony of an everyday job. And this is the apathetic situation plaguing the Indian schooling system.
Each new lesson a child learns is something that he or she has never came across before in their life. And each new lesson is to be taught with such enthusiasm that the child is captivated by wonder of that new concept they are being taught for they must use these concepts in their near or far future. However, most of the children learn their concepts for getting an A in their exams and never to see that subject ever again in life.
For the time being, let's leave the math, and science part. How about social studies? How about history of the country and civics where they are taught what democracy is all about and how important each individual's contribution is to the voting system? How about the concept of civil liberties and equality? Are these concepts to be learned for ultimately getting an A and to be forgotten for the rest of their lives or are these concepts to be ingrained into their minds so that they turn into good citizens for the country in the future?
The dangers of the above are far reaching. A kid learns about civic sense in school and once he comes out of school, the autorickshaw he is traveling in to get home everyday is blocked by heavy weight thugs from the Autorickshaw union and forced to abandon the kids because there is an "Auto Strike" to protest the Government's decision to increase the gas price by 5 Paise (2 cents). This is a real scenario. What would a kid learn from this apart from feeling that forcing your opinion on vulnerable individuals is the best way to get your opinion across? What does a teacher need to do about this? And does the typical teacher has the capability, the enthusiasm and even if they do, do they have the will to do it for the peanuts they are getting paid every month?
This situation is grossly unacceptable in a country where a billion people live and a fifth(20%) of the country are school going children. We havve the need in these times to look at successful democratic free societies and learn from them how they are dealing with their schooling system and make adjustments at home.
Sweden, one of the top countries for the "Happiest people in the world" has something to offer us. As stated, it always tops among the happiest countries in the world, and the highest percapita, highest civil liberties, and highest in salaris paid to teachers.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D) has released an abundant number of statistics for teacher salaries, the amount of hours teachers work in developing countries and others. With an increasing need for creating sane thinking, law abiding good samaritan citizens for future India, we have the dire need to introspect at some statistics below.
Comparing each country’s teacher salaries to the wealth of that country makes United States educational salaries appear lower. In the United States, a teacher with 15 years of experience makes a salary that is 96 percent of the country’s gross domestic product per capita. Across the O.E.C.D., a teacher of equivalent experience makes 117 percent of G.D.P. per capita. At the high end of the scale, in Korea, the average teacher at this level makes a full 221 percent of the country’s G.D.P. per capita.
India's estimates look very decent after all, in this scale. An Indian school teacher typically makes around 96000 INR and it's ratio to India's GDP per capita (~87000 INR) is about 110.3% nearly equal to that of the United States.
Now if we consider the amount of salary teachers get all over the world, India doesn't even seem to be having a footprint on the radar. An average teacher who worked for 15 years typically gets 15,000 INR a month which equals to about around 180,000 INR ( USD 3000). American teachers’ pay is more middling. The average public primary-school teacher who has worked 15 years and has received the minimum amount of training, for example, earns $43,633, compared to the O.E.C.D. average of $39,007. Considering the socio-economic situation and the economic growth and percapita over every field in India, this should not be of much concern but it benefits to look at the statistics so that we can guage how much importance a country gives for education.
Coupled with inflation and rising prices, it is more lucrative for teachers to establish their own "Tutorials" as they normally do within the comfort of their homes to teach children as additional help during after school hours, and also to teach at "Training centres" for IIT and other competitive examps that the students might face years after graduating 10th standard. Such lucrative offers coupled with less emphasis during mainstream schooling system, diminishes the need for offering quality education in schools.
The government needs to pay attention to these statistics and they need to address this problem immediately. Otherwise, we keep graduating millions of students every year, but only make a handful of good citizens. The quality of education overseas is measured in the civic sense, critical thinking abilities, courtesy towards fellow citizens, good communication skills but not the A plus grades in STEM subjects. Though they result in landing a good job in technology, which India and China always top in demographics, they fail to make good citizens which the longterm future of any country depends on.
What we desperately need are, people who think critically, people who understand individual civil liberties and who respect their own and their neighbors rights, people who believe in equal rights to women, people who believe freedom of expression and freedom of speech.
If we have such ambitious goals which the free western society has already achieved, we need to work for it and the buck starts at how we train teachers and how the teachers train their students.
And If you are a teacher, please aim to be the great teacher. Justice will be served on the long run when good citizens are made and today's teachers have a great responsibility on their shoulders. Every child deserves being taught by the great one. Happy teachers day!
Rohit A Venkata
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