Gone are the days when students used to stand up in ehtaraam and pay regards to the teacher entering the class. We as a culture have lost sight of the impression that teaching profession used to be the center of the communities. I have been blessed throughout my life with excellent teachers who always been kind and helpful enough to provide me not with the basic education but also the guiding principles molding us into better human beings. As I entered my professional life, I notice this change of behavior by the students towards their teachers, passing “not so humored” remarks, giggling and surpassing at their backs. As I further climbed the stairs of post-graduation and adopted teaching as my profession, I came to this hard to get gulped down realization: Hellllooo! Just being older than me doesn’t mean you deserve this respect!
Regularly I get encountered with young individuals working at senior positions in very reputable, highly paid organizations, pursuing their master’s degree who cannot even correspond correctly. We anticipate that education nurtures one’s behavior, envision our thinking and makes us humble while working aids in the professionalism of our personality and helps in communicating effectively. I mean we can expect this from a master’s student, can’t we? Yet so educated, working at top notch organizations they come up with excuses that we know “are not so just true”. They have I-know-it-all attitude and instead of making a request, they present dictatorial outlook through their words and body language. I mean how much professional are you or have you really forgotten how to communicate with your teachers in spite of the fact they are present to facilitate so you can get your degree within shortest span of time.
This is not one incident but many times in professional institutes; it is also difficult to deal with students in class who are much older than the remaining apprentices. This makes it challenging for the instructor to deal effectively with every age and bringing harmony in the class so any one may not get offend. Students stride in to the class as per their own convenience giving the miserable looks as that of “yeh bhi for the sake of attendance ana parta hai”. The notion that teachers shape your lives and imparts knowledge, takes a lot of effort and time to prepare the material so you can learn something at the end of the day. These days sadly they are the first to be blamed due to lack of respect and patience and they are targeted openly on the social media which is another dilemma prevailing in our society. Studies have shown that the percentage of students giving respect to teachers have dropped down from 80% to 30% which is jarring.
Undoubtedly the technology generation has far more access to immense sources of information which is beyond control and students easily challenge and shut out their mouths right in front of the class. They may be wrong but they are trying hard to hold grasp of the new technology. Students expect to get entertained instead of being taught and they decline to work when assigned any group project or an assignment or they just do for the sake of being done and submission. Delivering quality education is another diverse issue but then again that is the responsibility of solely not only one person but it lies with the parents, educational institutes, government and the policy makers to take the initiative in bringing the change. China and South Korea are leading examples of giving respect to teachers at the same level of doctors.
Despite the fact we are paying thousands of bucks to get educated and to attain multiple degrees, achieving high positions, excelling both academically and professionally yet we are forgetting our virtues and elementary teachings of paying respect to the most esteemed and dignified profession. The times have changed but we are shaping ours and future generations more vulnerable towards the death of this holy profession which has been given extremely admiration in our religion as well. The insulting attitude is not just damaging the society but our inner soul is also failing to understand the novelty of this extremely divine profession. We need to inculcate the richness of this profession where it originally belongs to and teach our generation that liberty is not just an entitlement. Our generation must learn to earn them to have right kind of values and the best life chances or eventually we may lose them.
Herat hai taleem o traqqi mai hai peeche
Jis qoom ka aaghaz hi IQRA se hoa tha
