Never in Independent India Has the Teacher's Role Been More Difficult – Or Necessary
Arun Kumar | 05 September 2024 | The Wire
Today, September 5, is Teachers’ Day.
Another Teachers’ Day, and the challenges for teachers and the system of education in India are more than ever before. These are not only micro and macro but also emerging from past mistakes and due to rapid technological changes. Teaching, the mother of all professions, needs to take note and respond urgently. Educational institutions in India are literally in a free fall. Freedom of thought is being curbed and standards of education are declining. Confused and confusing policies are being imposed in the name of a New Education Policy. In spite of problems building up in JNU, in 2016, after the episode in which Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested, I could confidently write a column on what we teach in JNU and our students learn. Since then JNU has floundered not only due to the COVID pandemic but also due to the internal changes forced on it by those lacking a vision of what higher education should be.
Today, I cannot write an article similar to the one I wrote in 2016.
There has been discouraging news from various premiere institutions – medical colleges, IIMs and IITs. Add to that the scourge of coaching, cheating in exams, fake degrees and manipulations in appointments. Curriculum are being designed to restrict critical thinking and restrictions are being placed on students’ activities and their participation in the wider political life of the nation.