Why teachers are not professional

This article is India specific.

It is a known thing that teachers are least to have an effective feedback mechanism. They hardly have, the result at the end of the academic year is by no means a yard to measure their effectiveness. Reason being the assessment itself is flawed.

Teachers are also least networked, at least in India. With NEP and newer thoughts on multi disciplinary learning, entrepreneurship, hands on learning and internship the teachers need all the more hand holding now than ever before. But are there people who can hand hold them at school level? Do they have any network at all to gather and discuss like industry related ones like CII, FKCCI, TiE. The answer is a big NO.

Now let’s go with first principles, if they don’t have any networking groups, let’s ask why? What could be the reason? The reason simply is teachers are highly egoistic and introvert, most of them. Unpopular opinion, I know but why do I say so? because they are stuck in 2 era’s. One earlier era where teacher were equivalent to God, they were kept at a pedestal higher; that was the time even a person in high position would bow down and rightly so. Teachers then were indeed a source of wisdom and knowledge. And the present era where information is available at the click of a button and human status index is measured by the amount of money someone has and showcases it. That being the case, teachers and their students feel a bit odd to exchange anything beyond pleasantries when they meet outside the class. Simply because the student knows very well that their teachers is not so great in the class or the student today is a CEO or a PM in a big MNC, having studied in a “foreign” country with LinkedIn profile carrying pictures of his talk at various forum, etc. He carries more weight in society and at govt level. Whereas a teacher’s profile at the maximum can have a few certifications they have got and a couple of seminars they have attended. Nothing beyond that.

This dichotomy in situation has made teachers introvert, yet not willing to concede space and open to learning. The pictures of older era come to mind and they feel hesitant to ask and watch and learn from a fellow human being. Learning from internet? They are worst in searching information and apt videos as earning object to be used in class. They have no clue on search engine algorithm and how it works.?

What is the solution now? Simply teachers should come out of this older era thought process and preset themselves as one of the present profession of this world. They should become normal human beings. Open to criticism, feedback, develop an urge to talk to people and learn, unlearn and relearn. Unless that happens, teachers will move further away from AI assisted world.

#teachertraining #ai #nep2020 #teachersfollowteachers #cii4india #TIE Central Board of Secondary Education