Tuition - a bane in small and big towns alike

Tuition when undertaken for a fees, and especially  for students whom the tutor also  teaches as a regular teacher in a  class is a vicious circle in India. In the West, any income which is above and beyond the salary is termed as Moon-Lighting, and it is illegal because you don’t pay tax for it! Unfortunately, most tuitions taken up for a fees are part of a contract where the teacher is under an obligation to pass the student in the final exams. When I was teaching in a school in Delhi,  I was surprised to see a commotion one day when the result was out. A couple of parents had turned up angry and agitated. It seems, one  teacher had taught their children tuition and he had taken a hefty fee, and  the students had failed! It was an embarrassing moment for the teacher as the parents were demanding a refund, and the teacher was ashamed on being exposed! Teaching  tuition can be so addictive that teachers who have been promoted to head the school find it very difficult not to give tuition! What is ironical is that while it is shameful for a Principal to teach tuition, it is perfectly normal for a school teacher to do so! An acting Vice Principal I know, continues to take tuition in science subjects like Biology and Chemistry which  he taught as a teacher of class ninth and tenth! Such a situation compromises the integrity of not only the teacher, but also the head of the institution who might be moonlighting! The lure of gaining extra income was so great for some teachers in a small town school that they decided to do away with a Principal who was strict and frowned upon tutors who called students to their residence within the campus with impunity! Today they are a happy lot busy earning extra money from tuition and doing anything but teach in school. The Manager too was happy to turn a blind eye as he was receiving a hefty commission from the tutors.

The adage, “familiarity breeds contempt” sounds quite true in the context where students of the same class are taught in batches or in groups at the teacher’s home. They become quite close to the teacher and his family members and soon they  become friendly with the teacher. It is these students who soon start exposing weaknesses in the teacher, and family secrets. All this poses serious discipline problems in school. Unfortunately, tuition is a vicious circle and parents are equally to blame! For most parents, it is a means of washing their hands off their responsibility of helping their children with their home work, and spending their time responsibly. Blame it on the concept of Out Sourcing! For other parents it is a guarantee that their children will pass. For very few parents, tuition takes on the serious purpose of improving performance!

A teacher who recently joined the school as a teacher told me how parents had already started contacting him for tuitions. In small towns it is worse, and parents have to contact the  school subject teachers because they don’t have a choice!The initiative of introducing C.C.E. or C.C.A. has no doubt lessened the need for tuitions in all C.B.S.E. schools till class nine. A Sanskrit tutor called me from Delhi, and told me how difficult it has become for Professional Tutors to find work, because of the      fact that students are  no longer being detained! He wondered if I could get him some work in Gurgaon!

Tuitions are demanding both for students and teachers. A teacher starts his batch early in the morning, and his batches are scheduled right till 11:00 p.m. No wonder, teachers who are highly in demand as tutors are not able to do their best in school. There was this teacher of Maths in one school in Delhi, who used to be so exhausted that he would nod off into dream world during tuition itself!  Poor students  who can’t afford the teacher's tuition fees are losers unfortunately! When most of the class goes to the teacher’s residence for tuition, they don’t pay much attention in class, knowing well that the teacher will teach them the topic later on. Students too, are often so exhausted that they are not able to concentrate well on the lesson being taught in class. Here, I would like to add a word also about the latest trend of attending coaching classes for entrance exams. There was this brilliant girl studying in class eleven in a school in Delhi who started taking coaching classes. She became so busy with coaching classes that she didn’t have time to complete her class home work. She would go home after school, have a quick lunch, rush off to the coaching center, return home late in the evening, have tea, go for a class tuition return home for dinner, and by then it would be eleven in night, she’d open her home work try to work on it but then would drift off to sleep. The end result was that the girl failed to clear her class eleventh exams. Her parents realized their mistake and eased off their pressure on her. I have seen, during my days of teaching, students of class eleventh and twelfth, in deep sleep in the class!

A lot more reforms are required to curb this disturbing trend of Moon Lighting! Tuitions become an addiction, and once a teacher enters into this vicious circle, it becomes very difficult to come out of it. Taking tuitions of the students taught in class is demeaning. It removes the required distance between the tutor and the student. Familiarity does breed contempt. And of course it is highly taxing for both!

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Towards more effective teaching of Humanities

Teaching is both an art and a skill. It combines intelligence, aptitude, empathy, and a youthful eagerness or zest. Truly it is said a teacher never grows old as long as he teaches, a good teacher is both a learner as well as a giver of knowledge. Today however, with an exponential explosion of knowledge, thanks to the electric media and the internet, the role of the teacher has become more of a guide than a giver of knowledge, because knowledge and information can anyway be found on the internet!

Teaching of Humanities, languages, arts, and Social Sciences however require special abilities and skills in teachers. It is not enough for the teacher of Humanities to be an encyclopaedia of knowledge, rather it is important for him to be able to enthral his students by making his topic interesting! How would you make the battle of Waterloo, or the battle between Porus and Alexander interesting, to young teenagers who’d rather be playing on their PlayStations? How would a teacher of Geography make the lessons of grasslands, climate, or map reading interesting to students who would rather be at the PVR watching a block-buster movie?

These are questions that confound most educationists! It is a challenge for all teachers all over the world to make dull and  boring topics interesting! There is this story about an argument that Einstein had with his History teacher regarding the need to memorise dates! Einstein had not memorised when the battle of Waterloo had taken place, and how many Prussian soldiers had died! When challenged by his History teacher, Einstein told him with his unthinking honesty that he did not believe in learning of dates, rather he wanted to learn why the Prussian and French were killing each other! The History teacher was astounded at this answer because Einstein’s theory of Education went against the concept of rote-memorisation and mugging!

It is this traditional method of teaching through rote-memorisation and mugging that makes the topic and class boring. It is when the teacher fails to arouse the interest and curiosity of the students that they start fidgeting and talking to each other. It spoils the discipline of the class and the teacher has to put in more effort in controlling the class. A spoilt opportunity, no doubt! What then can the teacher of an abstruse subject do to make it more interesting? Well, for one thing, he should be a good story-teller! Secondly, he or she should be a juggler, a person who keeps adapting his style of teaching according to the topic or the mood of the students! There have been times when students told me that they didn’t want to learn, so I started playing word games, and when they got into the right mood, I gradually drew them on to the topic! By the end of the period, the students would wonder how I had so cleverly ended up teaching the topic after all! It goes without saying that to be a good teacher of Humanities, you should be a good story teller, teach the students with the help of anecdotes, and stories! Connect and link the topic as much as possible to things which the student can relate to! Create in them a curiosity to learn more about the topic. Just the other day, I went to one of the tenth classes, and began to talk about the impact of pollution on the environment. Examples were taken from some the the English movies, and a reference was made to the documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth”. Time flew, and we were all engrossed in the topic, “Pollution”. This was because the topic of Air Pollution had become so interesting, and the question answer, and discussion method of teaching was adopted. In some cases, the lecture method suffices, but in other cases one may have to adopt a mix of different methods of teaching! It is only when interest is created in the lesson that teaching becomes effective!

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Building Blocks

The  tiny  tots  sit  in  a class,

Bewildered   and   bemused,

As they go through building

Blocks  of education in  life.

To be  future  leaders of  the

Society,  they   undergo  the

Pain   of   separation   from

Parents,   as   they  learn the

Alphabet  and  numbers.  To

Walk  in  line be their lesson

And  home work be to paint

A   duck!   So  the   children

Go  through    the   building-

Blocks    of    life    that  they

Better   citizens    might    be!

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Thorns of Life

A life among thorns teaches you that life is not a bed of Roses.

Yet, each time one pricks,  you get wiser of vicissitudes,

Life throws at you! Where you're surrounded by sycophants,

Learn that you shouldn’t be one. For life teaches,

That one’s individuality is one’s

Own and to bow down to Sycophants,

Robs one of life’s rich experiences!

To be what one is best be the best shield,

That protects one from the conformity of the dead!

To live life to the fullest and not be shed,

From the life of fullness  be the need of the glad!

For for forbid that I lead the life of the dead!

I desire to live the life of the glad, not the dead!

I would rather be what I want to be,

To lead a life of creativity and zest,

Would be my desire! Therefore, not to

Be demoralised by bullies be my goal!

You carry your thorns of failure,

I carry my cross of experience, and explore

What life throws at me, and take the bad with good!

Thorns be but things to be taken out.

So throw ye out the thorns of life that

You might live life to the fullest!

And I would rather ignore those,

Who seek to demoralise me,

For they be but children of a lost god!

But I am not lost so let me be!

For bullies abound in life everywhere,

They come in all shapes, bald, and short,

Fat and shrewd,  disgruntled and disfigured!

Life has made them as they are, discounted and sad!

But to steer away from the bullies of life be my desire,

That may I sit and read of the years gone by!

So, would I live a life of fullness unfettered by thorns!

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Sunrise-Sleeping in the cold

The morn sun wafts above the horizon,

The red dawn peeps at the sleeping world

The rich sleep indoors while the poor sleep

Out doors! I see the gypsies lying out

In the cold, out in the open, covered by

Single blankets worn so thin!

Wonder, I, how sleep the poor so

Deep? Then see I the peeping fingers

Of dawn bathe the sleepers in warmth of

Love and affection; while sleep the rich

Bereft of the warmth of dawn, tucked in

Blankets that warm no more!

I see two children sleep on the ground,

Wrapped around each other for warmth!

It brings tears to my eyes to see such

Love and affection in children so poor!

But to see such love in children who

Sleep indoors is rare!

For the dawn Sun showers his blessings

On those who’d accept them, but to do so

Requires sleeping on the ground, or life

Out-doors! For to appreciate the warmth of

Dawn in Winter needs one to be cold,

Not wrapped up in electric blankets indoors!

I smile to see the poor lying out on the ground,

Wrapped in blankets bare, gypsies without

Homes. The world is their home, and the

Generous Sun their protector. And I share,

The blessings of God’s Sun for I walk

In the chill of winter, feeling the heat of the sun!

Now and then the mist curls in, rolling over,

Those sleeping in the cold, the blankets

Drawn closer to beat the cold! But, then the

Munificent beams of the rising sun strike

The coils of mist, banishing them away,

While the poor lie sleeping and dreaming.

They have smiles on their faces, of a Fairy World,

Away from the world of cold. I smile too, to think

Of the sun so kind that he gives sweet dreams

To those who sleep in the cold! And so wonder I

about a world where the rich sleep indoors

And the poor outdoors, and all are happy!

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