Teachers ought to renew faith in the very meaning of the vocation of teaching

They are not loyal soldiers, nor cogs in a bureaucratic machine. They must be free to be wanderers. And poets and philosophers.

From Yajnavalkya conversing with Maitreyi in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad to Rabindranath Tagore seeking to make a difference in a “poet’s school”, from MK Gandhi evolving with the children in Tolstoy Farm in South Africa to Paulo Freire nurturing the vision of a “dialogic” teacher: The great ideals and practices have always given a meaning to the vocation of teaching. However, ideals fall apart in the difficult times we live in.

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Even though on Teachers’ Day we will repeat the usual rhetoric (“teachers are our noblest gurus”), the fact is that as teachers we have lost almost everything that is positive about the vocation. Yes, some of us are coaching centre “gurus”, or the traders of “knowledge capsules”, selling the packages of “success”. Some of us are mere “service providers”, disseminating the bundles of job-oriented technical skills, and further promoting the commodification of education that transforms young learners into mere consumers. And some of us are just “subject experts”, or routinised role-performers “covering” the syllabus, taking the exams and grading the students.

Let there be no illusion. Ours is a society that devalues the vocation of teaching; and no wonder, it also reproduces a system in which quite often wrong people join the vocation. Demotivated teachers, or teachers on election/census duty, or tired/exhausted teachers with poor salary, continually controlled by the principal or the school management — this is the harsh reality.

There could be many reasons for this sad state of affairs. However, I wish to stress on three factors. First, the dominant culture of learning in our educational institutions negates the possibility of an intellectually enriched and ethically sensitive relationship between the teacher and the student. The recurrence of rote learning in over-crowded classrooms, the ritualisation of non-imaginative examinations and “summer projects”, the sole emphasis on the quantification of performance, thereby negating the significance of all qualitative/non-measurable experiences — everything transforms the teacher into a mere mediator between the prescribed “texts” and the learners. Under this system, no flower can bloom, no Nachiketa can emerge, and the ideal of the teacher, as Sri Aurobindo would have imagined, as being a catalyst making the young mind aware of the possibilities implicit in him/her, would be considered as laughable.

Second, in an age that worships technocracy and market-driven solutions, teachers as philosophers, inspirers and life-transformative agents would not be appreciated. Techno-managers come with a discourse of education that privileges the cult of the “measurable outcome” (not the inexplicable ecstasy of the expansion of horizons), “efficiency” (not wonder, or the non-utilitarian quest for learning), and “relevance” as dictated by the market (not any deeper quest). It is, therefore, not surprising if the teacher is reduced to a supplier of “data” — the “outcome” of the courses taught, the identifiable “skills” learned by the student, and the “impact factor” of the papers he/she has published.

Imagine the absurdity. Is it possible to measure the “outcome” or “productivity” of a class in which a professor of literature invokes Saadat Hasan Manto, and recalls the traumatic memory of gendered violence implicit in the ideology of communalism? Is it possible to identify the “skills” a student learns in a history class in which the professor narrates the tales of Gandhi walking through the villages of Noakhali in 1946? It is sad that with the triumph of a techno-managerial orientation to education, teachers would lose the very meaning of their vocation.
Yes, in the coming years, like “disciplined” factory workers, they would wear special uniforms, get the structure of lectures approved by the “higher authority”, subject themselves to the ever-expanding machineries of surveillance, and obey the instructions and commands emanating from the castle of bureaucrats. This dystopia may not be altogether unreal.

Third, a political culture that seems to be inclined towards a totalitarian discourse would not be conducive to the growth of critical consciousness, creative ideas, dissenting voices and self-reflexive journeys. There is an inherent anti-intellectualism in such politics. With “nationalism”, “patriotism” and “cultural pride”, we may be asked to be “loyal”. Hence, as the message would be conveyed, it is not a good idea if a teacher encourages what Freire would have regarded as a “problem posing education”, or if, for instance, she asks her students to write a paper on the social construction of a macho “saviour” through the 24×7 “patriotic” television news channels and instantaneity of Facebook and Twitter. Think of it. The vice-chancellor of a leading central university has already expressed his desire to install a military tank on campus to induce “patriotism” among students. Yet another vice-cancellor has argued in the Science Congress that “Kauravas were test-tube babies”. As teachers, we work under the shadow of such “educationists”. Who can stop our fall?

Yet, I believe, we have to resist, and with our rebellion as prayer, we have to strive for life-affirming education. We ought to renew faith in the very meaning of the vocation of teaching. No, we are not “loyal soldiers”; nor are we cogs in a bureaucratic machine. We are wanderers. We are explorers. We are poets, philosophers, thinkers, visionaries. And unless we begin to trust ourselves, none can save us, and heal the wound caused by an unholy alliance of techno-managers and practitioners of what Herbert Marcuse would have regarded as “one-dimensional” thought.

Can it be our pledge on Teachers’ Day?

This article first appeared in the print edition on September 5, 2019 under the title ‘Teachers must have their day’.   Avijit Pathak -The writer is professor of sociology at JNU

Source: Indian Express, 5/9/2019

It is important to contextualise the NRC

Errors aside, the process was rigorous, methodical and did not target any particular community

The National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was expected to land with a bang in Assam, seems to some as having landed with a mere whoosh. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are particularly upset as it has belied their hopes of netting a huge number of immigrant Muslims in a dragnet — reportedly, a majority of those left out are Hindus. The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has expressed disappointment, arguing that the numbers did not tally with earlier figures mentioned by the government. Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has even given dark hints of ‘other measures’ in store to offset the ‘errors’ in the NRC.

On the other hand, former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has welcomed it as satisfactory. Pradip Bhuyan, whose PIL galvanised the process of preparing the NRC; The Forum Against Amendment of the Citizenship Bill, which I chaired; and organisations representing immigrant Muslims have also welcomed it, while pointing out that such a massive and complex exercise in a country where official documentation is still at a rudimentary stage is not likely to be foolproof.

Those expressing their disappointment ignore that the rigorous procedures and methodical cross-verifications were not put in place to fulfil some people’s fantasies. The previous figures cited by the government in earlier times were not based on any systematic procedure.

Rhetoric and reality

The concerns over the migration of Muslims also mask a social phenomenon. As Dr. Ilias Ali, a surgeon and crusader for family planning, and Abdul Mannan, a retired professor of statistics, have shown, the Muslims’ swelling numbers are the result of widespread poverty, illiteracy, early marriage and lack of birth-control measures rather than migration. However, this is not to deny that some migration did take place.

The results should also set at rest the tireless campaign by certain well-meaning but ill-informed people in the academic and media circles to paint the NRC as a vicious plot by some ‘xenophobic Assamese’ to oppress and torture Muslims. The process was impersonal and its strict machine-like operation pre-empted the targeting of any particular community. While there may have been errors and lapses, there is no truth to the allegation of bias.

People outside Assam have very little idea of the terrible times Assam lived through from the 1980s to the late 1990s. Social unrest, ethnic conflict, militancy and insurgency under different flags created a monstrous and stifling atmosphere. There was a complete lack of security, loss of trust between different communities and uncontrolled violence. The government’s attempt to quell these with the Army and the police made matters worse.

On the other hand, there was also an attempt by a group of civil society activists, saner political elements and mature tribal leaders to mobilise support for peace. At that juncture in the late 1990s, popular Muslim clerical leaders came aboard and publicly declared their support for the Assam Accord, which they had opposed tooth and nail for a decade after 1985. This was a watershed moment, when the demand for an NRC gained greater traction.

Earlier, since 1979, a turbulent stir in the State against a perceived threat to native identities had practically held the government to ransom, disrupted businesses and put a stop to education. Looking back, I cannot help feeling that underground saffron brigades had a lot to do with some of the grim incidents. In any case, there was a stream of BJP leaders visiting the State to rally massive crowds. The curtains were drawn on these scenes in 1985 after the signing of the Assam Accord, which set 1971 as the cut-off year for determining citizenship. Immigrant Muslims initially considered it a betrayal and even formed their own political party but, as mentioned above, they began expressing support for the pact in the late 1990s.

The colonial roots

‘But why is there so much hue and cry about migration, which is a natural human phenomenon?’ wonder many outsiders who do not know the history of Assam. Such an attempt to naturalise sociopolitical events is an intellectual folly. The roots of the State’s discontent can be traced to the early decades of the 20th century. The British colonial rulers, after fleecing poor East Bengal peasants for more than a century, apprehended a massive peasant revolt and promoted the latter’s migration to Assam. The relocation, which began as a trickle in the early decades of the 20th century, turned into a deluge in the 1930s and ‘40s.

Running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, the British also set off an alarm among native Assamese people about their lands being ‘seized’ and their culture ‘being’ buried. Provocative remarks like those by Census superintendent C.S. Mullan in 1931 made the situation worse, turning anxiety into panic. Muslim leaders like Maulana Bhasani breathed fire into this by demanding both land for new immigrants and inclusion of Assam in Pakistan. However, following Independence, when Bhasani went to East Pakistan and left millions of his followers in the lurch, it was a grim acceptance by the immigrant Muslims of their fate, patient negotiations with Congress leaders and sheer grit that saw them through.

Fortunately, there was also a strand of Assamese national culture that tolerated diversity of faith and promoted peaceful coexistence and fraternal relations. Cultural icons like writers Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, Bishnu Prasad Rabha and singer-musician Bhupen Hazarika upheld that tradition and until the Assam Movement, which began in 1979, the relations remained cordial.

The fate of the excluded

Now that the NRC has ended, what are we to do with the 19 lakh people left out? The problem is that their fate will be decided by Foreigners’ Tribunals which are short of mature and judicially trained members and which have so far leaned on reports of the Border Police. An option of appeal to the higher echelons of the judiciary does exist for those excluded but that is likely to be expensive and sometimes unaffordable. The government has promised legal aid but we have to wait and watch if it is dispensed impartially.

And what will be the fate of those left out, most of them poor and hapless, after these appeals are exhausted? Deporting them is not an option. However, many of the Assamese people, living in a State that is still under-developed, are not willing to bear their burden at a time when their own lot is facing difficult times due to the annual floods, a drying up of natural resources and the cut-throat competition. They are scared of losing whatever political power they have enjoyed. It is the Centre’s responsibility to rehabilitate and look after those who are left out after the exercise. In the meantime, patience and a refusal to take the bait of rumours and inflammatory rhetoric may see the Assamese through.

Hiren Gohain is a scholar and literary critic

Source: The Hindu, 5/09/2019

Traditional & Tech Teachers

Artificial intelligence (AI), robot teachers and online technology may not take the traditional teacher’s job, but it could become overpowering soon. A greater emphasis on moral science and the brain’s subconscious process could work as an effective counter-trend to the emergence of the clinical AI and online technology in education. One major reason behind teachers’ downturn is their inability to communicate coherently, their welfare mission to students, leave alone getting emotionally connected with them. Soft-skill to human is as crucial as software is to computers. To an ordinary student, a modern teacher’s appeal to moral values, human rights, democracy and diversity just appear to be nice-sounding words. It looks more like a sermon or a statement of intent, rather than a plan of action. And, so, teachers lose the battle of ideas and values. Teachers employing goodness mode require sincere study of their own rich intellectual resources and heritage. Seeking help with humility from students, they need to weave a robust, meaningful narrative that explains to students the true meaning of education and moral values and why they matter. The teacher needs a communication model as creative and passionate as that of digital/robotic technology, albeit with exciting content. Though we are more powerful and informed than before, we have little idea what to rightfully do with all that power and information. The essence of our future lies in deepening the foundation of collaborative intellect and boosting traditional wisdom.

Source: Economic Times, 5/09/2019

Quote of the Day

“You have to dream before your dreams can come true.”

‐ Abdul Kalam

“सपने पूरे होंगे लेकिन आप सपने देखना शुरू तो करें।”

‐ अब्दुल कलाम

The disenfranchised migrants

In India, where internal migration is a hard reality, a significant number of migrants are unable to vote

The idea of ‘one nation, one election’ is back in the public discourse and has invoked varied responses. Amidst the discussion on elections, one issue that hasn’t received much attention pertains to the fate of the migrant voters. Internal migration is a hard reality in India and in every election, a significant number of voters are rendered disenfranchised on account of residing outside their constituency. The idea of simultaneous elections is likely to deprive migrant voters of their political agency at both Central and State levels.

Setting time aside from their busy campaigns, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah reached Ahmedabad to cast their votes. After exercising his franchise, Mr. Modi said, “I feel blessed to have exercised my franchise in this biggest festival of democracy.” In contrast, a migrant from Bihar residing in Chennai said: “When I was working in Delhi, it was not much of an issue for me to go to my home town to cast my vote. Now that I am working in Chennai, that option is not open for me any more. Thus, I am not voting this time.”

According to the 2011 census, 45.36 crore Indians are internal migrants — now settled in a place different from that of their registered residence. Among them, 5.1 crore migrants moved only for economic reasons. Our general elections have earned the distinction of being the biggest festival of democracy because they have the highest number of registered voters. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections clocked a turnout of 67.11% — approximately 60 crore of the 90 crore eligible citizens voted. Of the more than 30 crore voters where weren’t able to vote, migrant workers constituted a major proportion. Hence, at least a third of our electorate continues to be on the margins when it comes to participating in the general elections.

The promise of adult franchise

India’s ‘stellar’ democratic record is primarily attributed to the right of every adult individual to become a stakeholder in the political process through the exercise of her right to vote, without any discrimination. However, over time, the practical difficulties of conducting multiple elections as well as a lack of political and bureaucratic will have exposed the chinks in the election process itself, particularly, when it comes to giving this right to the huge number of internal migrants.

In a country where internal migration is a reality — those moving to a different place include the daily wage earners as well as the white-collar workers, not to mention the students moving to a different location —such exclusion is baffling to say the least.

The current legal regime regulating voting poses a cruel dilemma before a migrant who is forced to choose between earning her livelihood and exercising her right to vote. Clearly, the regime is out of sync with the economic reality of the nation, where there is a high degree of internal mobility If the degree and range of electoral participation is a key metric to assess the democratic nature, so long as the representation of electorate continues to be skewed in this manner, the country has a long way to go before it assumes the title of the ‘most representative and inclusive democracy’.

An argument raised against the inclusion of internal migrants is that after leaving their home constituency, migrants discontinue their ‘real’ association. When weighed against the proactive measures to grant voting rights to non-resident Indians or external migrants from India, this argument ceases to hold sway. The government has already introduced an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to allow proxy voting for overseas voters but no such provisions are in place for the internal migrants.

Logistical issues?

The Election Commission of India (EC) has time and again cited logistical issues as the principal reason for not supporting the inclusion of internal migrants. Clearly, such a view is constitutionally, legally and ethically on shaky grounds. The ECI must be more proactive in extending the right to vote to internal migrants. This can also help infuse a sense of belongingness and political responsibility in the migrant electors.

Extending the right to vote to internal migrants has the potential to alter the nature of our elections and provide the much-needed credibility, uniformity and representativeness to the electoral process, and surely this is where solutions that are offered by Information Technology have huge potential.

We need to ensure that the universal adult franchise provided by the framers of the Constitution does not remain a pious declaration of intent. The ultimate aim was to empower each and every citizen to become a stakeholder in the progress of the nation. Hence, there needs to be a constant review of the inclusive character of our electoral processes in India. Given the significance of this section of voters like every other section, the idea of ‘one nation, one election’ must be deliberated upon in such a way that it empowers the migrant populations.

S. Irudaya Rajan is a professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Kerala; Prashant Singh is an advocate at the Supreme Court of India

Source: The Hindu, 30/08/2019

IIT Guwahati develops artifical intelligence chatbot to support EEE students

The chatbot would help students find their class schedule, tutorial schedule, and examination queries via a AI-based chat window.

In a bid to promote learning through Artificial Intelligence (AI), a team of postgraduate students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, along with their faculty members are developing an Artificial Intelligence-enabled chatbot named “ALBELA” to teach and support first year students of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE).

“We have been working on its development since last 7 months with a team of dedicated 7 research scholars of the department. Earlier we did the trial runs of the chatbot, and started using from this academic session onwards.

“The response from the students has been overwhelming and we hope that this will become the new normal in near future. Prof. Rohit Sinha, Head EEE Department, and the team IBM have extended their continuous support for this activity,” Praveen Kumar, Professor, Department of EEE, IIT Guwahati, said in a statement.

The chatbot would help students find their class schedule, tutorial schedule, and examination queries via a AI-based chat window. Students at times may hesitate to approach an instructor regarding their queries, but with this chat-based system students can clear their doubts, both technical and non-technical, according to the institution.

“The team is developing the analytical problem solving skill. It will be helpful for the students to learn how to solve analytical problems related to the course. Within next one year, we will extend it to biomedical signal processing, electrical machine courses, said Samarendra Dandapat, Professor, Department of EEE at IIT Guwahati.

Source: Hindustan Times, 3/09/2019

The difficulty of being a teacher in today’s time

It’s not easy being a teacher in the 21st century when the Internet has comppletely transformed the learning process for everyone

It’s not easy being a student today. The expectations of growing into a professional well-capable of handling a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) workspace is insurmountable. For all our good intentions, we can’t really stop our students from feeling that pressure. But if you think about it, being a teacher in a VUCA world is not any easier. The 21st century is all about equipping oneself with skills that will enable us to easily adapt to all the challenges this VUCA world throws at us. And to prepare our students to be able to handle all of that complexity, we must first prepare our teachers. Our teachers are the only hope for us to prepare the students for the 21st century. Our aspiration is to develop the gems of tomorrow, today with our teachers.

So, how do we prepare ourselves to be 21st century teachers, for the millennial generation of students? A generation that’s characterised by their dwindling attention span and their rising tech-dependence? The simplest way to do that is, meeting them where they are most comfortable.

The days of monological teaching are on the decline as learners respond better to collaborative and engaging interplay. . Let’s explore five key roles a 21st century teacher must take on to be able to achieve that.

An Adaptive Mentor

‘One size fits all’ no longer holds true. Mass personalisation is the keyword in the current education industry. According to the ‘multiple intelligence theory’ propounded by Howard Gardner, there are eight different kinds of intelligence. It is not necessary that each child in a class will exhibit the same level of competency in each of these eight kinds! One might be spatially more intelligent, while another might show linguistic expertise. A 21st century teacher must be adaptive enough to meet each child at their space of intelligence and take it up from there. But it does not end there. A teacher must also be adaptive enough to embrace the changing dynamics of education. Instead of depending solely on textbooks, a teacher should be able to infuse lessons with new and fresh ideas. Talking about steam engines does not cut it anymore, because this generation of students will never be able to identify with it. Instead, how about discussing electronic vehicles, since that’s much more immediate and contextually relevant for today’s students?

Try the flipped classroom method, where students do the actual learning at home, and the classroom is used as a safe space to engage in discussions, provocations of minds.

A Digital Dabbler

No, it does not mean that teachers need to be tech-nerds. But a little bit of technological know-how can go a long way in establishing deeper bonds with students. In an age when entire campuses are making the shift to digital, a teacher who shuns technology will only succeed in alienating the students. 21st century teachers also need to be able to differentiate between bad addiction and good addiction. Screen-addiction is something that bothers every parent today. As a 21st century teacher, one has the power to channel that screen-addiction into an addiction for learning. Leveraging the wonders of the technological world to kindle a child’s curiosity to go above and beyond classroom learning is where a 21st century teacher must excel.

To push learning beyond the classroom walls, encourage your students to join global communities on social media. Be it a photography community or a cyber-security one, a global learning ground exposes them to varied cultures, languages and politics.

An Enabler of Experiences

The current buzzword is ‘experiential.’ A virtual tour of the Amazonian forest will have a bigger impact than a written paragraph about it. Young minds need stimulating experiences to retain concepts better and longer. It follows naturally that mentors have to plan lessons where they engage the senses, and organize practical demonstrations. Being hands-on is a key skill that teachers of the 21st century must demonstrate. Another side of the coin is activity-based learning. If you are thinking excursions and field-trips, you are on the right track. But a 21st century teacher will go beyond and make sure that students are not just learning, but also applying that knowledge, analysing it and finally interpreting it to create new concepts.

Instead of asking them what they want to become when they grow up, take them on a picnic and encourage them to approach random people (of course, under your supervision) and ask them about their professions. They can quiz people on the pros and cons of their jobs, about how they made their career decisions and what factors influenced those decisions. This way, they will develop a better understanding of various career options.

There’s no denying that students today learn more from the internet than from textbooks. In such a situation, a 21st century teacher should be ever-ready to be left stumped by their ingenuous queries. You see, children today have access to more information than a teacher can wrap her/his head around. Thus, a 21st century teacher needs to be a learner, who learns alongside the students. And not just alongside, but also from the students. A teacher has gone from a sage on the stage to a guide by the side. It’s now time to take on the role of a learner in the pit.

Come up with a topic that’s in the syllabus and encourage your students to research the topic by going on the internet, while you do the same. Share notes and build a project together. This will also help them learn to differentiate between authentic information and misinformation, because the internet is full of it.

Educators all over the world have been harping on how important it is to let students take the lead of their learning. That way, students own their learning. How can a 21st century teacher make that happen? By giving them a chance to take pride in their learning. With collaborative learning and sharing platforms becoming the norm, it is super easy today for students to share their work with peers and also the world over. When ‘practise assignments’ travel beyond the teachers’ desks and takes on a concrete shape as their very own creation, students learn to take pride in their learning.

Instead of asking them to write an essay, ask them to write a blog, add pictures, polls, opinions etc. Instead of asking them, ‘How do plants produce their food?,’ ask them to make a ‘how-to’ video on the same topic. So that, once the lesson has been learnt, their assignments do not just end up in a waste paper basket, but they can share it online and take pride in their creation.

To conclude, a 21st century educator is an aware global mentor, who provides a safe and encouraging space for young minds to ask questions and helps them make use of the right channels to look for the answers. It’s time we all come to terms with the fact that with information being available at the click of a button, the teacher’s job is no more about dispensing information. A 21st century teacher is all about preparing students to consume and interpret the readily-available information effectively, to best suit the generation’s collective interest.

The author is Global Head, TCS iON

source: Hindustan Times, 4/09/2019