Friends,
Like
every year, 5th September 2014 will also be celebrated as Teachers’
Day in our schools. This day is celebrated not in memory of any teacher who had
fought for social equality or any movement for equality of rights or in
remembrance of any revolutionary turn in history. Rather it was chosen to celebrate
the birth date of a person who has made no remarkable contribution to the
universalisation of education. Instead dates associated with struggles of
teachers like Jyotiba Phule, Pandita Ramabai, Savitribai Phule, Gijubhai Badheka,
who have made exceptional contribution in education, look more appropriate for
Teachers’ Day. In a system rooted in inequality, the role of education and
teachers is to prepare the way for a more egalitarian and just society. This
can happen when knowledge of history is embedded in an understanding of
struggles. Programs based on administrative commands and formal traditions can
only obtuse the intellect of teachers.
This
year’s Teachers’ Day celebration shall further crystallize such formal traditions.
As per the government directive, all schools are required to show Teachers’ Day
address of the Prime Minister to their students between 3:00-4:45 pm. To
enforce implementation of this directive officials are required to ensure that
the ‘directions are being complied in letter and spirit’. It is further
communicated to schools through a circular that ‘any laxity in the arrangements
shall be viewed seriously’. It’s an exercise to hurt the self-respect of
teachers and ‘show’ them their position in educational hierarchy. It might be happening for the first time on
Teachers’ Day that teachers have been given a present of threats wrapped in an
administrative fashion. This year’s design of a centralized program takes away
from schools and students freedom to celebrate or not celebrate this day in
their own ways. Even if it’s seen positively by some as an interaction between the
Prime Minister and students, is it not an example of dictatorial intervention
in the functioning of autonomous institutions like schools?
Another
piece of irony is that thousands of teaching posts are lying vacant in schools
of Delhi government. In the absence of teachers some subjects were either not
taught to students or teachers of other subjects were made to undertake this
task. The guest teachers who were finally appointed in the last week of August
were asked to complete syllabus in a short period of 20-25 days so that
students can anyhow sit for first term examinations. The slogan of ‘quality
education’ remains nothing but a hollow phrase in such a system.
De-regularization of teachers is not a technical or financial issue but a
result of neoliberal policies whereby labour power in each sector is being increasingly
used at low wages on a contractual and informal basis. What kind of social
values can grow in a system where teachers are ill-paid, fragmented and
insecure about their jobs all the time? It would be a challenge in such a
situation for teachers to inculcate an understanding and strength to build a
democratic and egalitarian society among students.
Friends,
we appeal to you to protest against this atmosphere of tyranny and systemic
inequality and join the struggle for democratic, equitable and universal
education.