What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation. --
Marcus Tullius Cicero
The age-old adage still holds water and will continue to hold. Teachers are an integral part of a country's development process, as it is they who impart knowledge to the young minds, train and groom them to become able citizens.
As Albert Einstein had once said, “it is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
Well, the quotes refer to an idealistic situation, but what is happening today, is far from that scenario, especially concerning the engineering colleges.
In the last couple of years, we have seen a sudden spurt of engineering colleges that today number over 800 in Andhra Pradesh alone. A majority of the colleges are either understaffed or the teaching faculty is much below the desired standard.
“Well how can you expect a B. Tech graduate teach the B. Tech students. The basic qualification should be M. Tech and he or she should have sound knowledge of the basic and core subjects and with a penchant for research,” says the Principal of Andhra University College of Engineering G.S.N. Raju. He further adds, “these apart, the personality of the teacher matters. He or she should have the passion to teach and be imbibed with qualities such as punctuality, character, honesty and discipline. A teacher should have the ability to convince- then only we will be able to produce engineers by knowledge and not engineers by qualification.”
Principal of GMR Institute of Technology (GMRIT) C.L.V.R.S.V. Prasad says that one cannot become a good teacher if he or she takes it up for survival or by accident.
“It has to be by choice and linked to passion.”
But at the same time he adds that teaching is a ‘two- way' process.
“A teacher should be able to give and at the same time the students should be able to absorb. A student-centric learning is desired. The students should have enough fire in the stomach to understand ‘how to learn' and ‘what to learn',” says Prof. Prasad.
On one hand we have shortage of good teachers and on the other hand the cream of teachers in most of the government-run universities, be it Andhra University or Osmania University, will retire in another four to five years.
“There is no recruitment to fill the vacant posts and at the same time mentoring of junior staff is not taking place. This will leave a countrywide dearth of good teachers in the coming years,” says Prof. G.S.N. Raju.
But why is that the cream is not interested in taking up the profession?
The Registrar of Andhra University P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy has an answer.
He says, “unlike in earlier days where the brightest of students were attracted towards the profession, the same interest is not seen today towards the profession. Primarily, the quantity and quality for post-graduate study has fallen.
These days, the moment a good student passes out from a college, he or she will have at least two jobs in their kitty. Well, this is a good thing to happen, but at the same time it has affected the PG study and research has become a rare thing. The government has to do something to make both post-graduate study and research lucrative.”
The Registrar further adds that though finance or pay packets play a key role, the research ambience in colleges have a bigger role to play.
“Research is encouraged in few colleges unlike in the West where research has a good scope. Research is given top priority and rather it is mandatory for promotions. And it also paves way for the overall development of the country.”
When it comes to research and development and recruiting good teachers, Prof. G.S.N. Raju points out, “a lot depends on the leader or the Vice-Chancellor of the respective universities.”
If one goes back to the formation and formative days of Andhra University or for that matter any other university, then professor Raju's statement comes true. “It was the then Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who took the initiative to attract the best brains in the country to take up professorship at the nascent university. And the list includes the likes of Humayun Kabir, C.V. Raman, Mokshagundam Visweswaraya, Ludwig Wolfe and T.R. Seshadri. He even tried to rope in C.K. Nayudu to train the university's cricket team,” says the former Rector of Andhra University A. Prasanna Kumar.
Sarvapalli Gopal in the autobiography of his father wrote: “The list of recruits to the faculty of the Andhra University in the thirties is a roll-call of distinguished Indians in the sixties and seventies.”
But those days were different, when eminent men, who walked the corridors of education, were selected by another set of equally renowned men to the post of Vice-Chancellorship. Though the criteria such as experience, academic brilliance, research, mentorship and administrative skills remain the same, the selection at present is dominated by other equations such as political pull and ethnic factors, thanks to the politicisation of the post. “The universities are no more the seat of learning- they have become the hub of political activity,” says Prof. Prasanna Kumar.
“Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.” -- Anatole France
