teachers union, more teaching jobs and the ethics in education!
“Fix teacher–pupil ratio at 1:30 ” Staff Reporter
Recently one of the more visible University VC in the state termed it unethical if students from the third year engineering were given jobs through campus interviews if the final years still did not have jobs! what a sense of justice and such great ethics! so, now they say that final years alone will have campus interviews. the worser ethical dilemma should be why the hell campus interview at all!? why put the pressure of performing in the interview so strongly in the minds of students when they should be concentrating on excelling in their studies. a photographer friend recently shared his experience of shooting an entire convocation in a prominent college. He said that most of the students were least interested in any protocol and all but grabbed their certificates from the hands of the presiding person and even worse, some of them made faces at him while taking their certificates. He said,
universities and colleges and educators succumb to their pressure and have converted themselves to the head(less) body suppliers for a corporate cause. the process is celebrated so much that colleges no longer talk of what were the scores or university ranks from their colleges (which was bad enough to begin with) and instead talk of how many have been recruited for jobs and in which companies. no one, but, no one talks about how much can the students achieve or what have been the signs of their excellence. what can be so excellent on sending 80% of your students to a job that would reduce them to fixing bugs or maintaining software that was produced by a previous generation of mediocre programmers or responding to calls for fixing washing machines and selling credit cards over phone in distant countries?
'oh! it is so competitive, you know how much effort it takes to convince some of the top companies to come for recruitment to our campus', said an elderly gentleman who was responsible for 'placements' in his engineering college some time ago, 'we provide everyone with free feast on that day in our campus'! please welcome, have a feast and enslave our students, any doubts whose predecessors let Robert Clive in this country?
'you know we didn't have so many opportunities during our days', is another oft repeated statement by those who are currently in positions to decide to encourage this phenomenon. but, what are these opportunities that they talk of? remove the company name, remove all the blurb, just read the work expected out of the recruit alone, it will be the same everywhere. it is like the toilet soap counter in the super market, which ever brand you choose, it benefits the same company, the same owners, just the packaging is different. similarly, whatever may be the packaging of the career, the ultimate beneficiary is the same, the perpetuation of that which the student victim does not even have enough time to give an 'informed consent'.
it starts with the school teachers and goes all the way to the college and universities, this profession which bears the responsibility of shaping the minds of the next generation more than many others has submitted meekly to the corporate claim on the next generation. the corporate investor want the future generations to behave in a certain way so that they can promise and provide better return on investments to their clients, the more the future generations behaviour is shaped the better for them, and what more can be asked if they can shape the minds of the institutions where the future generations minds are shaped?
what the hell does all this have with 1:30 teacher student ration in the news item? who will benefit from more 'teacher' jobs in the country as it is now?
as long as 'teaching' is a job that is available in abundance by the state, there will be more unions, more demands and perpetuation of mediocrity. the more teachers are created by the state machinery, the more corrupt will the system become. why should the state provide so many teaching jobs, support for teachers if its purpose is to ensure learning environment for the students? what is the co-relation between the teachers presence and students learning environment. why is it taken for granted? when was the last time it was critically examined?
just as de-linking of corporate agenda from the higher education institutions are necessary for any excellence to emerge from them, the de-linking of state from the lower level education institutions too is mandatory. i realize that this is against the grain claim, but, the more the state penetrates primary education using the system of 'schooling' with its imbecile practices, mediocre teachers, un-imaginative curriculum and impractical routine, the more it is creating students for future enslavement!
PUDUKOTTAI: The Pudukottai district wing of the ‘Tamizhnadu Thodakka Palli Asiriyar Mandram’ has urged the State Government to fix the teacher-pupil ratio at 1:30 to improve the standards of teaching learning practices and for achieving higher academic standards.
A resolution, adopted at its district executive meeting held here recently, said that in addition to re-fixing the ratio in the larger interest of the student community, the State Government should also fill up the post of secondary grade teachers lying vacant for several years.
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/14/stories/2008021451130300.htm
So, more jobs will be created and more members for the union of teachers, how will the students lot improvement be measured??
I think the unionisation of teachers should be considered criminal. This must sure have happened in the socialist heydays when comrades thought the more unions the better for society. What is the business of teachers to be unionised and 'fight' for rights or more jobs? How many times in a year do they meet to discuss 'larger interest of the student community'? the teachers by and large represent the most mediocre professionals in the state. If their interest lay in the 'larger interest of the student community' many should have quit their professions as their contribution long back.Recently one of the more visible University VC in the state termed it unethical if students from the third year engineering were given jobs through campus interviews if the final years still did not have jobs! what a sense of justice and such great ethics! so, now they say that final years alone will have campus interviews. the worser ethical dilemma should be why the hell campus interview at all!? why put the pressure of performing in the interview so strongly in the minds of students when they should be concentrating on excelling in their studies. a photographer friend recently shared his experience of shooting an entire convocation in a prominent college. He said that most of the students were least interested in any protocol and all but grabbed their certificates from the hands of the presiding person and even worse, some of them made faces at him while taking their certificates. He said,
'most of them have already secured their careers through campus interview based jobs and getting the degree is only an incidental ritual of no significance for their life now'!one of the most unethical practices that has emerged as a side effects of the IT and ITES growth is the weedic head hunters. Corporate head hunters are increasingly reaching into the wombs to shape the minds of the children to become future employees of enslaved professions, so that they get their mandatory commission of 'hunting' heads! quite literally.
universities and colleges and educators succumb to their pressure and have converted themselves to the head(less) body suppliers for a corporate cause. the process is celebrated so much that colleges no longer talk of what were the scores or university ranks from their colleges (which was bad enough to begin with) and instead talk of how many have been recruited for jobs and in which companies. no one, but, no one talks about how much can the students achieve or what have been the signs of their excellence. what can be so excellent on sending 80% of your students to a job that would reduce them to fixing bugs or maintaining software that was produced by a previous generation of mediocre programmers or responding to calls for fixing washing machines and selling credit cards over phone in distant countries?
'oh! it is so competitive, you know how much effort it takes to convince some of the top companies to come for recruitment to our campus', said an elderly gentleman who was responsible for 'placements' in his engineering college some time ago, 'we provide everyone with free feast on that day in our campus'! please welcome, have a feast and enslave our students, any doubts whose predecessors let Robert Clive in this country?
'you know we didn't have so many opportunities during our days', is another oft repeated statement by those who are currently in positions to decide to encourage this phenomenon. but, what are these opportunities that they talk of? remove the company name, remove all the blurb, just read the work expected out of the recruit alone, it will be the same everywhere. it is like the toilet soap counter in the super market, which ever brand you choose, it benefits the same company, the same owners, just the packaging is different. similarly, whatever may be the packaging of the career, the ultimate beneficiary is the same, the perpetuation of that which the student victim does not even have enough time to give an 'informed consent'.
it starts with the school teachers and goes all the way to the college and universities, this profession which bears the responsibility of shaping the minds of the next generation more than many others has submitted meekly to the corporate claim on the next generation. the corporate investor want the future generations to behave in a certain way so that they can promise and provide better return on investments to their clients, the more the future generations behaviour is shaped the better for them, and what more can be asked if they can shape the minds of the institutions where the future generations minds are shaped?
what the hell does all this have with 1:30 teacher student ration in the news item? who will benefit from more 'teacher' jobs in the country as it is now?
as long as 'teaching' is a job that is available in abundance by the state, there will be more unions, more demands and perpetuation of mediocrity. the more teachers are created by the state machinery, the more corrupt will the system become. why should the state provide so many teaching jobs, support for teachers if its purpose is to ensure learning environment for the students? what is the co-relation between the teachers presence and students learning environment. why is it taken for granted? when was the last time it was critically examined?
just as de-linking of corporate agenda from the higher education institutions are necessary for any excellence to emerge from them, the de-linking of state from the lower level education institutions too is mandatory. i realize that this is against the grain claim, but, the more the state penetrates primary education using the system of 'schooling' with its imbecile practices, mediocre teachers, un-imaginative curriculum and impractical routine, the more it is creating students for future enslavement!
Comments
A beautiful place here!
Excellent post! You are Master.
Thank you.
have a good day