High Standard of Teachers in India Non-existant?
September 22, 2009
Has the standard of teachers in India dropped?
Has the intellectual calibre of the average Indian teacher nose-dived into the single-digit region? Is the future generation of Indian youth doomed to a substandard level of education?
My name is Pranav Jain, and I’m a senior at the Marshall School of Business, at the University of Southern California. I have a great personal interest in the current situation of education in India. I was born in Bombay, India, and have seen first-hand the problems that plague our country. In my eyes, there are three problems that hold our great country back from achieving its true potential:
- Corruption
- Population
- Pollution
Corruption
The corruption in India is rife. Every sector of the government is greatly corrupted. In fact, corruption has been such a long-standing problem in India, that it has become a social norm to deal with corrupt officials and politicians, and has become a way of life! Big businesses in India even claim that payoffs and bribes are the cost of doing business! I feel that this is ridiculous – we as a people, should not have to deal with corruption. We should be able to move our country forward without the problem of corruption rearing it’s ugly head. This problem is due to the lack of education. The population does not understand that corruption does not benefit anyone – it holds the country back from developing.
Population
As a resident of Bombay — one of the most densely populated cities on Earth — I have seen the vast expanse of shanty-towns that stretch for miles and miles; literally for as far as the eye can see. The belief amongst these shack-dwellers is this; the more kids I have, the more hands I will have to help me work, and therefore the more money I will make to support myself and my family. Unfortunately what these people do not realize is that these children need to be fed, educated, and clothed, and all this costs money.
Money that they do not have.
So the result of this is that families get larger, and larger, and these shanty-towns get bigger, and bigger, and eventually the area becomes over-populated. Consequently, the capacity of the land, and the infrastructure, to support such a large population is greatly surpassed. This problem, again, is due to a lack of education.
Pollution
India is a dirty country. Anyone who visits India can see, and millions of tourists who visit annually do see this. The trash dumpsters in neighborhoods are overflowing with refuse. And what’s worse is the fact that the local state governments are not doing anything to counteract the spreading filth. But the question is why? The governments get enough money to improve the situation. The reason is the officials who get paid to carry out these duties, pocket the majority of the money, leaving the absolute bare minimum level of funds available to do a half-assed job. In short, the pollution is due to the corruption. And the corruption is due to the lack of education.
Furthermore, the pollution is also caused due to a lack of education. Keeping India clean benefits everyone – the average health levels of the population will increase. As a result, health-care costs will go down, which means the government will have more funds available to improve the Indian infrastructure. It’s a win-win situation. But it all depends on the level of education.
I believe you understand that education is at the root of all of India’s problems. If we do not improve the level and quality of education, India could be lost.
In July of 2009, the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visited India. She had a sit-down interview with Arnab ( a talkshow host). Aamir Khan, a great advocate for improved education in India, sat alongside her, and was also interviewed by Arnab. Short footage of their interview can be found here. (For the entire interview, please refer to the end of this post.)
According to Khan, teaching is not a top priority in India as it should be. “We should give top priority to to teaching. It is still not a priority,” Khan claims. The real question is this: WHY is it not a top priority? Khan believes that the reason for this is the fact that teachers are not paid very much. He claims that people do not aspire to be teachers. Instead they aim to become scientists and doctors. In fact he claims that due to the underpaying of teachers, substandard individuals apply to teaching jobs. “By and large in India the people getting into education is because they can’t find a place anywhere else to fit in” – Khan.
Not only is the level of teachers substandard, but education is not widely available to the youth of India. Clinton validates this claim in her interview; “Talent is distributed equally, but opportunity is limited.” Additionally, the limited availability of education, is not due to the intelligence level of the average Indian child. Again, Clinton puts forward her ideas in the interview – “I believe every child can learn.”
TeachIndia is a initiative that Clinton, Khan, and myself all believe in. They are an organization that helps improve the level of teaching, and helps more kids to learn. They help children who have absolutely nothing in life – they embody the word ‘poverty’. I believe their cause is noble and just, and I believe that such social entrepreneurship is the way forward for India. TeachIndia was founded in 2008 by Aamir Khan and The Times of India (in partnership). The idea behind the whole program was to link individuals with NGOs to give the underprivileged, uneducated, and impoverish youth of India a chance to be educated. The movement quickly became a big deal, and in the first few days, received over 100,000 applications to the program. The applicants came from all walks of life — scientists, college students, housewives, and they all have one thing in common – their desire to teach the needy.
If we can educate India, we can promote our country to the big boy’s club, to play with the likes of China, Europe, and the U.S.
P.S. Footage of the entire interview with Arnab, Hillary Clinton, and Aamir Khan, can be found at the following links.
Hiliary Clinton – U.S. Scretary of State, in India talking about the TeachIndia Program.
Education serving to change our world.
