Dr Vikas Dogra
The entrance to the Department of Zoology, G.G.M. Science College, Jammu, relentlessly brings one memory back to life: getting slapped by one of my teachers for my supposedly erroneous fleeing from his practical class, a mistake that I had committed, though unintentionally. Teary eyed, I accepted the punishment, even though I remained disconcerted on having been reprimanded in a way harsher than required. Hard did I try, I could not dare to present any counter statement as clarification. It’s been more than a decade now to the only punishment I am reminded of having received from any of my teachers ever since I have gained enough senses. And now, as I enter the corridors of the same department, though with the role reversed, I wonder if a similar incident would elicit a similar reaction from a student in the present times. Probably not! Times have changed.
The transitional stage that we are in, portrays a complete change in the perspective of the teachers and the students; both are no longer what they used to be. The waters of “Tawi” that kept thumping obstinately on the banks adjoining the vast boundary of G.G.M. Science College, erstwhile Prince of Wales College, seem to have taken along with it, the aura of the teacher student relationship that existed then. And this changed relationship has, as any other relation would have, the desirable and the not so desirable elements to go with its present form.
Having traversed the seemingly unending conduit of “student life”, I feel fortunate enough to be a teacher now. The transformation from “taught” to “teacher” has been engrossing at times and distracting at others. Engrossing because I have always been reciprocated in my interactions with the teachers whilst I was a student, and with the students now; distracting because the reciprocation fizzles out sooner than required. The advent and explosion of gadgetry in recent times has had its sway on the attitude of the present generation, patience has paved way for intolerance, respect for the teachers is largely wanting, concern towards classroom learning is passé and the fear of being admonished by the parents is uncared about. This generation expects instant results, and expects them to be of its liking. But what needs to be understood is that nothing valuable comes too easy and too soon. The pace that drives the present world is likely to tell upon the perseverance of the students, something that forms the basis of success not only professionally but familial as well. In the race to achieve things fast, the basics are being compromised with, the first causality of which is the basic comprehension skill and control over language.
A 10th pass of the days of yore is, more often than not, better versed with grammar and basic comprehension skills as compared to most, if not all, of the “graduates” of the modern era. Something is amiss, and the gravity of what is missing is worth worrying for. It gives immense pain to evaluate the answer scripts of the present day undergraduate students. As against the set notion, I would prefer the script to be given the importance that it deserves, the content comes second. In science, they say, language does not matter. I differ. It should matter. It’s a matter of concern when a student writes “Palaemon (commonly called prawn) is a genius” instead of writing “genus” and then repeats the same mistake over and over again. This one simple sentence is enough to tell the examiner that the student lacks the understanding of the term itself and the spellings thereof. And these mistakes cannot be seen with detachment. Sadly, more than 75% of the answer scripts are below average in terms of correctness of language and spellings, be it any language. I understand that the examinees can do fairly well in all subjects if they abound in vocabulary and are adept at framing correct sentences. The present generation is intelligent enough to understand and gifted enough to retain all or a part of what has been taught in class. But still the pass percentage at the end of the academic year puts forth horrid statistics. The fault line is thinner than it may seem but the corrective measures don’t appear to be the priority of students and teachers in these fast paced times. Simple understanding of the language can be instrumental in casting the subject matter into what has been asked in question paper. And this is something that can be indoctrinated in earlier classes.
The lack of interaction between the students and the teachers in institutions has to be looked into. The reciprocity, that is required to reinforce life into the relationship between the teachers and the taught, has to be reinvented. The obligation is of both, the teachers and the taught alike. Each must reflect certain attitudes and reflections of the other. The student ought to feel deference and admiration for the teachers, the teacher’s concerns must be trusted and the unwanted attitudes should be kept out of the class, better, out of the relationship. The teacher, in turn, should know his/her students inside out, must understand their strong points and must take time to reflect upon their progress whilst upholding love and affection that they deserve.
As teachers, we need to own this challenge. What breed are we producing out of our factories we call schools and colleges? It’s very easy to say and soothing to hear that the present day students are the future of our country. Of course, they are. But what future? Are we prepared to witness and endorse another generation of inefficiency? Probably we can’t afford to. Let’s bequeath to the morrow, the rejuvenated traditions of the Upanishads vis-à-vis the guru-shishya relationships that still hold relevance that may not be as evident as it used to be. In the present generation driven more by gadgetry than by the oral lore characteristic of the traditional Vedic, agamic, architectural, musical or spiritual knowledge communicated from guru to shishya, the students are the “know all” creatures, or at least so they believe themselves to be. Let’s try to make them the “know all” in reality. The need of the hour is to reinvent the ancient and medieval India where the teacher-student relationship in the Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim Centres of learning was apparently close because the centres of learning were residential and the number of students per teacher was small. The same might not hold true in the present times because of the huge number of the students that are seeking to get literate. But with greater outreach, courtesy the technological boom, each student can be given due attention as was the practice in earliest regular institutions like Takshashila and Nalanda. I wish every student becomes an admirer of the teacher, an ardent learner of the facts and a good human in the making. Hope the “taught” allow the “teachers” to mould their aspirations and cast their future they have dreamed of.
Let there be unambiguity of thoughts and actions towards nation building. Let each teacher recognise, in each student of his/her, a persuasive administrator, a valiant soldier, a leader people can count on, an Olympian whom the nation can cheer for, a writer who can read the people’s minds, a model who can remodel the world of glamour, a news anchor who can beat Arnab Goswami in eloquence, a programmer who can google his way into Google and, probably a teacher, who can keep this cycle going.
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