When teachers fall from grace

Last week, news of fourteen-year old cadet Muhammad Ahmed being so severely beaten by his teacher that it caused him a paralysis attack (which led to him losing all his senses) made the whole nation cringe.

News channels were teeming with updates of the horrific incident and civil rights advocates were condemning the attack. The question on everyone’s minds was: what kind of person would subject an innocent child to such inhumane treatment?

This might be new to those of us who come from privileged schools and affluent families, but for the general public this is not something out of the ordinary. I had the privilege of attending a very reputable school where children were not subjected to corporal punishment but the college I went to was the exact opposite.

As a 19-year-old student with classmates of the same age or even older (some were even in their mid-20s), I was shocked to see our professors and lecturers slap, punch, kick and shove students for mere disciplinary violations. Students who came to the college 20 minutes late were subjected to deliberate humiliation; our teachers pulled them by the ties, yelling obscenities at them. This, mind you, took place in front of the all the students gathered for the school assembly.

After successfully leaving behind this college which was filled with behemoths in the guise of teachers, I enrolled in one of Pakistan’s most reputable private universities. I was looking forward to a varsity where teachers would impart quality knowledge, teach us the important lessons of equality, respect, dignity and hone our skills to perfection. Boy, was I headed for a major disappointment.

We are not subjected to corporal punishment in our university but something far worse happens. Students here are subjected to humiliation and degradation verbally. Sycophancy gets students marks and since teachers have the last say when it comes to allotting marks to students, they know who’s boss.

And they intend to make us know that too. I have seen teachers in universities scream at female students – without any regard to the traditional respect and honour that women are to expect in society. Favouritism is the order of the day and if you dare disagree with a lecturer, however respectfully and logically, you’re in for the humiliation of your life.

The silent majority reading this write-up would agree with me that by and large, this is the case in Pakistan. I would like to exclude a handful of teachers who have taught me and my peers with dignity and respect, and imparted valuable knowledge to us.

These are teachers who do not use their platform to abuse, humiliate, torture and hurl insults at students but treat them as human beings. Teachers who look at students as human beings and treat them as such. Teachers who award marks and not dole them out for their favourite students in the class. Teachers who do not command respect but earn it. Teachers who are smart enough to realise that just like violence, mistreatment begets mistreatment and one day perhaps their own children will have to deal with the same inhumane treatment that they mete out to the generation that will become the leaders, and more importantly, the teachers of the next generation.

To the heads of private universities who establish toothless disciplinary committees as mere formalities to hear students’ complaints, we say you need to change these systems. Your institutes and campuses operate out of students’ money which they pay in the form of fees. Students deserve to be equally heard and the practice of taking a teacher to task for his/her negative demeanour needs to be set.

To the teachers who believe in ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely’, we say you need to show more grace. After all, who will we turn to and what shape will society be in if teachers fall from grace?

The writer is a staffer at The News.

Email: shahjahankhurram91@gmail.com