Don’t Blame the Teacher

When I took over the responsibility of Wipro in 1966, I had no experience of working in business. I was 21 then, having left Stanford with my degree unfinished, in the wake of the tragedy of my father passing away at a relatively young age. The first few years at Wipro were bewildering. Everything was new and had to be learnt. There were many good people to help and support me, but eventually the responsibility was mine and I felt that acutely.

I learnt most by accompanying the salespeople in the street. We would go from shop to shop, to convince the owners to stock the vegetable oil that we used to make at that time. This gave me an intimate view of the industry, from its human to its economic dimensions. It also taught me that our organisation was eventually only as good as our salespeople they were our most important people. I also learnt how complex and demanding the sales job was. This is a lesson I have seen to be true everywhere. When we started the Azim Premji Foundation 17 years ago, and started working with government schools, I knew nothing about education. But I knew that the best way to learn was to go and spend time with the frontline, which in this case was the teachers and principals. I have done this systematically over the years, and every such instance has given me a glimpse of the extraordinary complexity of a teacher’s role and her challenges. Let me use an experience from a particular trip to illustrate this.

My visit to Barmer district in Rajasthan was an unforgettable experience. During lunch in one school, the head teacher insisted on pouring ladles of ghee on the bajra roti. Of his own accord, he said, “you must be wondering about this ghee”, and then he explained. The school has 265 students. The quantity of grains that they get for the midday-meal is based on the norm set on a per child basis. But on any given day five to 10 children are absent from the school. He makes sure that the quantity cooked is appropriate and saves the grain that was meant for the absent students. Over a few weeks he saves enough to trade it in for some ghee and sweets with the village grocery shop. And this he uses for the students.

Clearly, mid-day meals need a lot more funding from the government for the nutritional content to be improved, in all schools across the country. But within the existing constraints, this head teacher does the best that can be done for his school. It was some of that ghee that he was sharing with the guests of the school.

The head teacher’s ingenuity was reflected in many things, including the baal mela, being hosted by his school, which we visited. The purpose of the event was to generate awareness amongst teachers from nearby schools about effective pedagogic practices. The baal mela had required an ability to convert educational ideas into an effective and interesting mechanism that would attract teachers. His ingenuity was combined with sincerity and sound educational understanding. He led a group of five motivated teachers. The result was a school where children were happy and learned well, one the community took great pride in. This, despite the complex challenges that the school confronted. Most children faced extreme poverty at home, and a tough trudge to school, five teachers had to handle the work of nine, and so on.

In the three days that I was in Barmer district, I met over 200 government school teachers. Their commitment and sincerity were very moving, especially seen in the context of the difficult conditions and constraints that they have to work with.

In district after district across the country, I have seen

Our teacher education system needs a complete overhaul. The desultory teacher training must be stopped. Teachers must be empowered, trusted, supported

the same. There is a sizeable proportion of teachers, who, despite all constraints and challenges, do remarkable work through their initiative and ingenuity. There is also a large proportion of teachers who do a good job when they are given support and the right environment, while a small proportion is disengaged. This is not very different from large organisations in business or other fields. With about nine million teachers across the country, this implies that there are millions of teachers with sincerity and commitment.

We need good curricula, infrastructure and administration. But teachers are the real frontline in education. And even when all other factors are against them, good and committed teachers make a big difference. It is this frontline that will determine the success of our education, and it is education that shapes our society. But over the past decades we have systematically undervalued and underinvested in teachers. How can we have good education if this is the importance that we give to our teachers?

Many interventions for our teachers are absolutely essential and we need to do these urgently, if we want to improve our education. Let me mention just three.

First, our teacher education system, which prepares our teachers through the BEd programmes, needs a complete overhaul. Very large number of BEd colleges are virtually degree shops with no real interest in education—they need to be shut down. We must abandon the archaic short BEd programmes, and move to an integrated four-year programme, with real curricular imagination. All colleges must be run well, with integrity and educational rigour. Making this happen will require substantial public and philanthropic investment. But unless we invest in preparing our teachers, how can we expect them to have the capacity to perform their roles adequately?

The current problems in school education are substantially because of the pathetic state of our teacher education system. It is heartening that the Union government has taken the first concrete steps towards these reforms, but it will require at least a decade of sustained work to make a difference.

Second, the existing nine million teachers must be supported and empowered. This will require developing effective on-the-ground modes of professional development of teachers. The desultory teacher training that has been the norm must be stopped. It will also require more and better resourcing of schools. Some states such as Karnataka have made a good beginning on professional development of teachers.

Third, we must stop blaming teachers for all the ills in our education system. Instead, we must give them their due place in society—as the architects and developers of a good society. They must be empowered, trusted and supported. This requires a cultural revolution in our education system and society at large.

The progress of India will be determined by the capacity and motivation of the frontline in all fields of human development. We must invest in and value the frontline. We have not done this till now, so it needs urgent and dramatic change. Human capacity in the frontline supported by an empowering culture is the crux of making our country more just, equitable, humane and sustainable. We must put all our national might behind this.