For the sake of future

At an education summit organised by the Directorate of School Education – Kashmir, Omar Abdullah described NEP-2020 a magnificent document with far reaching impact. The granular details of the document apart, NEP-2020 envisions education in a dynamic perspective and suggests changes accordingly. There are educationists who have raised finer questions on this policy framework, but that is true of any policy framework. The point that needs to be underlined here is the importance of educators as envisaged in the document. The CM, on this occasion, captured it briefly, yet brilliantly. Addressing the teachers present on the occasion the CM said, “those sitting in this hall would decide to a large extent what the future of the J&K would be.”

It is not a customary tribute to teachers, it is a matter of fact. No nation can grow beyond the capacities of its teachers. But the question here is where do our teachers stand, and where do we place them. Those working with government know well how they are treated in the hierarchy of power. The self-esteem of a teacher, when he visits the offices of his own department, is put to torture, and that is where we have placed him. It might sound so good to call teachers as architects of a nation, but the truth is that we hardly treat them as those who matter. That is one aspect.

The second is, how much is invested in training and capacity building of our teachers. The government schools may have regular programmes to scale up the capacities of teachers, but the way these programs are delivered produce less than minimal results.

Now coming to the unaided schools, call them private schools if you like. The way teachers are treated in these schools, in terms of monetary rewards, less said the better. Though the majority of these schools are financially so weak and vulnerable that even if the management of these schools wished they cannot pay them more than peanuts. And trainings, that is a far fetched dream. Under such circumstances what do we expect from our teachers.

The CM, the education minister and the Directorate need to review their understanding of how our schools are functioning. Our schools need handholding, they need autonomy to implement the vision that documents like NEP set for them, and they need resources. It is time we stopped differentiating schools as Government and Private, and rescued them all. Our future is not just in one type of schools, or schools in one geography – it is in each school.