Respect in the right place

As always, it comes back to the same issues. One reason we find ourselves faced with a sea of problems lies in our inability over the past six and a half decades to put in place a working education system that is consistently able to produce competent, creative and compassionate graduates, able to understand the plight of their country and act to alter it.
Our future in so many ways depends on being able to produce such individuals, from all the tiers of our educational system, so that they can in the future undo the wrongs inflicted in the past: the wrongs that played such a major role in creating the mindset we see today, and beyond this even in setting up a system where students at all levels gain very little resembling real learning.
We then have Grade 5 students at government schools in Sindh and also other parts of the country unable to read simple phrases in any language, graduates who lack basic mathematical understanding and students at elite institutions who struggle with basic concepts. Combined with this we have a blind worship for grades, with parents of even second graders hiring tutors, sometimes what seems like armies of them, and parents – almost inevitably mothers – struggling for hours with homework or examination preparations. The ordeal for parent and child is probably about even. This is no way to learn or to spend a childhood.
The true lessons of life vanish somewhere in the equation. We have lost all grasp over ethics. Children, sometimes working to a system, post entire homework or other assignments on social media sites. The rest copy these off into their books. Parents connive, sometimes disregarding pleas from their children about teachers advising against this.
Friendship and goodwill count more than integrity, and it seems even more than the welfare and learning of the child who of course uses no mind power and no initiative when they simply reproduce from a phone screen. The purpose then, much as is the case in a government office, seems to be simply to get the right column ticked off, without achieving anything along the way.
Rote then comes into play, and even in the most elite setups it is interesting, and of course saddening, to see how many children, their tutors and their parents struggle desperately if the rote lifeline is taken away.
There is always more to education than academics alone. Through the years at school, social interactions, daily routines and the rituals of school life probably teach us more than books or tests or classroom lectures. This is what we take away with us from school, alongside the memories, good or bad as they may be. We also take with us, and in most cases carry with us for life – like a knapsack permanently attached to our bags – a set of values and ideas about status. These will influence us for life and also go towards creating the kind of society we live in.
One feature of the society we have created today is the lack of respect for teachers, whom we appear to believe occupy a place low down the professional ladder. This approach is visible at the elite schools. Wealthy parents, many wielding impressive degrees from foreign universities, do not seem to recognise the significance of teachers in society or even as individuals with an important role in the lives of their children. The rudeness demonstrated is appalling. It is a mirror of the equally unacceptable behaviour directed towards drivers or maids. Teachers are placed in the same category, and interactions witnessed at schools can only shock
These encounters take place regularly. Parents shout at teachers, humiliate them or threaten them, sometimes as their children look on. This can only build a future generation that has no respect for its teachers. The attitude is perhaps derived from the view that schooling is paid for, giving parents the right to treat service providers as they choose. Generally speaking, however, doctors at private clinics are for the most part spared such conduct. Their profession is regarded as a prestigious one, with social value, unlike that of teachers. There are significant implications tied in to this.
In the first place it determines who opts for jobs in teaching, notably in a society where social standing means so much. Those who take up teaching often do so because of a lack of choice. Even though pay scales have risen at some institutions, notably for teachers at higher grade levels, they are still low compared with other professions.
Compare this situation to Finland, a country where the education system and its excellence has attracted international acclaim since 2010, and the contrast is dramatic. Finnish teachers draw salaries at the same level as doctors or lawyers, and the profession is a highly coveted one. The results too are dramatic, with Finnish students excelling in all key subject areas and 93 percent finishing high school, 17 percent more than their US counterparts. All teachers hold masters degrees. All education is public funded.
The gap between our own private and government schools is of course vast. We are all aware of this. But respect for teachers has slipped. There is sometimes a degree of fear, with the disempowered, impoverished parents who must send children to government schools sometimes intimidated by school heads. Fear does not translate into respect. This holds true for the pupils as well as the parents, and overall does not create a conducive learning environment.
Illiteracy does not equate with a lack of intelligence and the disinterested, unmotivated teacher is easy to spot. The fault of course lies with the system and not the teacher. He or she is a victim too.
It is the system then that must be changed. At every level we need to rebuild respect for teachers, and at the same time create teachers worthy of that respect. The profession needs to be placed on a new foundation and upgraded at all levels. The teaching of young children, often entrusted to untrained or poorly trained individuals needs drastic improvement. It is here that children learn to use their minds – or in our system learn to turn them off.
This is what teachers are trained to do. Few encourage inquiry; most actively work against it and the majority dislike being questioned. Changing this approach could alter a lot about our society. Infants are after all not born with bigotry or intolerance implanted in their brains. The chip goes in later with teachers playing a part in programming it.
It is teachers then who need to be re-programmed. An initiative to upgrade the profession could prove critical to our future. We are seeing a fairly rapid increase in school enrolments. But to make this really pay off, we need better teachers and far greater respect for them as professionals. This respect was once present. It has largely disappeared with a strange, hierarchal order of professions created. This is detrimental.
Education plays a key role in building the thought process, and it is quite obvious that we need this change to prevent our society from slumping into further decay. We need our teachers to help in this and to do so we need to recreate for them the social standing that has been stripped away from them.
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.
Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com