Teachers must rise to save education - The Tribune

Teachers must rise to save education

The stark decline of our academic institutions is taking its toll on students

I have no hesitation in saying that I feel happy when my students send me their wishes on the occasion of Teachers’ Day and recall those beautiful days of working and evolving together. And with deep gratitude, I too recall many great educationists who shaped my ways of engaging with the vocation of teaching. Of course, I invoke Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan — his scholarship and philosophical insights. I recall Savitribai Phule — her courage and dedication to spread the light of awakening among the oppressed and the marginalised in a patriarchal, caste-ridden society like ours.

And in my own way, I engage with the likes of Paulo Freire and bell hooks — the spirit of libertarian education through which they inspired us; or I love to be inspired once again by Rabindranath Tagore’s lyrical essay “A Poet’s School”, Jiddu Krishnamurti’s book School Without Fear and Gijubhai Badheka’s amazing pedagogic experiment as articulated in his book Divaswapna. I feel happy that it was not the lure of power but the joy of learning/unlearning/teaching that shaped my destiny.

Yet, I must admit that in these turbulent times, some sort of anxiety has begun to confront me. Can I really feel happy and celebrate Teachers’ Day when I witness the decline of our academic institutions and feel the agony of our students? I ask myself: is there any reason to celebrate this day anymore?

Think of the anguish of this generation of discontented students. Yes, they are uncertain of their future; and they are stressed and anxiety-ridden. No matter whether one is a student of a highly pampered elite institution or a young aspirant from a small town preparing for a high-stakes standardised test like NEET, the stress that this generation is going through is indeed a matter of concern.

As I write this piece, IIT-Delhi is on edge after the suicide of an MSc student and the administration’s cold bureaucratic response to this tragedy. Likewise, it breaks my heart to know that several students died by suicide after the NEET cancellation and rescheduling caused by a major paper leak controversy.

As I look at the data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau — 14,488 cases of student suicides in 2024 — I realise the damage that the race for upward social mobility in this highly uneven and asymmetrical society has caused to the mental health of our students.

Likewise, think of the pathetic state of our schools and universities. While English-medium/private schools with fancy names can be seen even in little-known villages and small towns, government schools are in a terribly bad shape. As per a recent report published by NITI Aayog, 94,000 government schools were shut down in a decade. Not only that, see how the establishment devalues and trivialises the vocation of teaching. Otherwise, how do we explain the way government school teachers are often asked to leave their classrooms and perform all sorts of non-academic/administrative tasks such as election work, Census operations and voter roll revisions?

Moreover, here is a system that demoralises those who love to teach. How can a teacher teach if young students refuse to attend classes and prefer to be taught by all sorts of coaching strategists? Yes, you and I must reflect on the close relationship between the normalisation of “dummy schools” and India’s Rs 58,000-crore coaching industry.

When the traders of “success manuals” decide how physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology have to be taught, is there any space left for those who wish to teach deeply and meaningfully — not merely for NEET and JEE, but for nurturing young minds, sharpening their critical thinking and developing a truly democratic and scientific temper?

Frankly speaking, as I see the colonisation of the realm of education by the coaching mafia, I find no meaning in celebrating Teachers’ Day. Also, when academic freedom is denied in our universities and an environment of fear and surveillance continues to disrupt the flow of ideas, debates and contestations, Teachers’ Day seems to have lost its meaning.

I am not sure whether as teachers we are realising the danger confronting the field of education. If the instrumental rationality implicit in the discourse of neo-liberalism reduces education to a mere training for jobs or a set of technical skills the techno-corporate industry needs for enhancing what it regards as “productivity”, we cause severe damage to the very spirit of liberal/humanistic education.

This sort of instrumental learning erodes the very spirit of democracy. How can we teach critical thinking, gender studies and subaltern histories if we are told that the worth of everything has to be measured in terms of its monetary value? Likewise, as the agenda of hyper-nationalism becomes normal in these toxic times, the spirit of critical pedagogy is bound to die. Under these circumstances, will it be possible for a teacher to interrogate what the discourse of hyper-nationalism has normalised — militarism, social conservatism, majoritarianism and constant ‘othering’ of the minorities?

Even amid this crisis, it is good to see our students raising their voices, taking all sorts of risks and protesting against the ongoing onslaught on education. As teachers, if we do not come forward, raise our voices and initiate a movement for saving education, is there any reason to feel good and congratulate ourselves on the occasion of Teachers’ Day?

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