We all are students, whether we attend schools and colleges and universities are not. Learning has been part and parcel of human mind since the dawn of history associated with “intentionality” of humans. When learning has been institutionalized, schools, colleges, Universities and Research Institutes emerged. The ‘Academy’ of Plato could probably the first educational institution that behaved as a school, college, research institution and a university all put together. Since we are all the end products of educational Institutions the school, college and university and training institutions, what are the similarities and differences between them?
In a student’s point of view:
In students point of view see the differences between the school, college and university associated with each other in terms of the degree of
(1) The Distance between the teacher and taught – both physical and mental.
(2) Flexibility/Rigidity of the content of education
(3) The degree of freedom of choice that could be exercised in choosing the institutions one need and above all
(4) The liberty and freedom for free thinking
In teachers point of view
(1) Educational Qualification and Specialized Training
(2) Method of Teaching
(3) Degree of closer monitoring of students and methods of students evaluation
Point of Convergence
Teachers whether they are in nursery or in school, primary or secondary school, college or university there could be no second thought that teachers should be role models, ethically serious and should spend their time in reading compared to other professions. This is the blessing according to many and a curse may be for a few.
Inspiration from Teachers
All our first imitation of a professional begins with “imitating our school teacher” since younger days. Apart from family members a child in the process of socialization gets into contact of the teacher, the school teacher first and hence the duties of a school teacher goes beyond legal definitions. He/She is the first inspiration for a child. There is no choice for a kid in this aspect, whether a saint or a beast, his/her teacher becomes his/her role model. Since a pupil’s character and value premises are molded within sixteen to seventeen years, the role played by school education is very crucial and learning in scoop level is mostly teacher centered. If the teacher omits a portion of the lessons in the text book, the student ignores them totally unlike in higher education.
Higher Education
In College and in Higher Education inputs keep adding on improving the incremental rationality of the learner. Teaching becomes often a different experience if the teacher has a better expression, good voice and sharper memory. Since the degree of disciplining and controlling virtually vanishes at higher education unlike the school, here learning becomes student centered. In still higher systems of learning, the teacher gets reduced as a symbol of impart of knowledge and wisdom because he/she is expected to fill the gaps between the syllabus and the topic of the course, for example – In Western Political Thought, the philosophers are at least more than a hundred of which we rationally select just ten so as to accommodate the content in some 90 instructional hours. This is the limitation of higher education and it is at this point, the teacher need to give an over view of western political thought and need to move out of the syllabus at the same time conscientiously complete the syllabus. I am 100% sure, the scope of a teacher of higher education in inspiring a student, in motivating a student and above all him/her consciously to imitate the good qualities of a teacher are relatively high than in schools and colleges.
A higher education teacher is the last teacher to interact with a student before he is exposed to the job market and it is at this point a teacher of College/University is prone to both good will and curse of a student.
What is common in all Teachers
The quality of education, the commitment of teachers and the ethical standard of teachers are matter of great concern among teachers from all sections. A good student cannot always become a good teacher but a good teacher must be a good student. There must be certain guiding principles of some kind of personal morality, ethics and values for teachers in common. Even if a teacher fails to guide intellectually and emotionally, he/she should never misguide.
Certain Deviancies in Teachers
In both rural and in urban areas, the teachers of primary schools are mostly money lenders. What is worse is employing young boys and girls to fetch cigarattes and to massage their hands and legs. There are some nasty examples where the students are made to baby sit the teachers’ kids in school during school hours and sporadically there are instances of child abuses by school teachers. If this is the situation, then obviously the young boys and girls get derailed from morality. I came across recently school kids shooting their sexual ventures through cell phones and the same has been circulated.
The Choice of Songs for School Annual Day Programmes – A Dangerous Signal
If the preceding para depicts the situation in state run government schools, the private schools even run by the coprorates, however they maintain their front office image, get exposed very easily in their annual day programmes where young kids are made to dance to the most vulgar songs of the year – Imagine this is a school day prgramme and the school plays the fundamental role in character formation of students.
Pathetic Situation of Ethics in Higher Education
Let me just illustrate one sharply contrasting aspect of ethical deviancy in the case of institutions of higher education when compared to the school or college. Taking clue from Tamil Nadu, that in the past five years, not a single principal of school or college would spend money to become the chief of the institution barring the Vice Chancellors. In Tamil Nadu, the post of Vice Chancellors of State Universities were sold for consideration in the past five years. One of the Vice Chancellor have also acknowledged this in the media and eminent Academician Prof.M.Ananda Krishnanan also lamented on this openely.
Vice Chancellors or Chancellor of Vices
With these thugs as Vice Chancellors, what academic progress would have been accomplished during their tenures? It is still not known how the system has survived with these unethical people in the five years and how would have been the system of awarding marks and degrees and what message they would have conveyed the students? Or this is just a zero-sum game that the entire universe is corrupt?
Teachers – The Torch Bearers
In any case just as people have not lost faith in judiciary despite the accusations that it is also corrupt, still people hold faith with Teachers. Teachers are the mirrors of the society and they need to maintain the highest degree of moral standards. If teachers fail, it mean the society fails.
(I thank my teachers from school level to University level for being my role model and I hold my head high as I feel I carry the lessons had from them to my own students)
( Picture courtesy: www.twitter.com)
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