Professionalising Education

We keep talking about professionalising our education but it is easier said than done. There are various aspects we need to look at when we think about making the education process more professional. Every stakeholder needs to play a part in the process, be it teacher, parent, student, society, etc. I would just like to share my view on some of the aspects. Professionalism cannot be brought about by merely raising the students' fees, increasing the salary structure of academic staff, adding better infrastructure, etc. Some of the issues that determine a professional approach towards education are :
Society's outlook towards teaching as a profession
Attitude of the teacher, in general
School's vision and approach
I had some experiences in my life during my interactions with school principals, teachers and other stakeholder which really changed my perception about teaching and education. Some of these experiences were really shocking for me and I just could not believe that they were coming from the horse's mouth i.e. teachers and principals.
Firsly, I talk about society's outlook towards teachers/ teaching.The society's perception about teaching is nothing more than just perceiving it as a job to be done from 8 A.M. - 2 P.M. and no extra work/ effort demanded. What we forget while forming our perception about teacher/ teaching is that our children's future are shaper by these teachers only and we cannot treat it as a substitute job to be taken up just to fulfill our personal or family needs.

Secondly, the teachers attitude need to change drastically. If the teachers will keep joining schools to do a 8 - 2 job, will shun adoption of newer ways of teaching-learning, will treat any new techniques/ tools as extra work, will keep talking about their salary structure, we will keep getting the same results using the same methods of teaching-learning. The things would not change as long as the teachers would keep concerned about themselves rather than about a child's learning needs and shaping their future. Let teachers not forget that we are not doing justice to our children in schools if we are not providing them ample food for thought. The demand of the situation is passionate teachers who feel for teaching and do not compromise under any situation/ circumstance.

Thirdly, as long as schools keep compromising on the teaching/ teacher quality, we cannot expect an enhanced teaching-learning process and a better future for our children. The school's rolw is not just to impart education uptil a partcular standard but also to prepare children for future. All this cannot happen if the school does not give a thought to quality of teaching/ teacher. The commercialisation of education is prompting the schools to charge exorbitantly from the students but to recruit unqualified people as teachers because they come at a very low salary. Most of the school's objective is just to recruit teachers to fill the position without giving a thought to the quality that gets delivered through these inequipped teachers. Let us not feed our students with half-baked knowledge and information.

It is indeed a 'vicious circle' where the role of all the three stakeholders mentioned above is equally crucial. Every stakeholder needs to support the effort of the other for transforming the teaching-learning. I can go on and on, relating more of my experiences but saving it for my next posts.