We see a lot of news reports of parents going on strike to reduce the sky-rocketing school fees. The average fee parents have to shell out for their ward is no less than 1 lakh these days. While some go on strike, the rest don’t have qualms shelling out lakhs of money, expecting a ready-made child who is ready to take on this world, having loads of money, oomph, but no attitude and goal for life.
What makes these schools most sought after by these parents?
The answer is both the attitude of parents and the private school teachers. The parents work under a formula of sort; the more is the money you pump in to a school and the better is the education. And they are ready to part with as much money as they can afford or more than they can afford.
The teachers in these schools may not paper-qualified, but come up with promising accountability and responsibility towards the child. This attitude of the teachers seemingly comes from the private school functioning, that expects the teachers to show the best of their abilities to shape out the child’s future. The motivation in most cases is money or the fear of losing their job in the event of student failures.
And then there are Government Schools that offer you almost free education. These schools have no takers among the above described parents. Any guesses why?
The answer is again, both the attitude of the parents and the government school teachers. The school teachers are paper-qualified and also highly paid and are offered life time security for their job and life. Yet they show a sorry-state of attitude in doing their jobs. It’s a known truth that the teachers in question show a lackadaisical attitude, showcasing minimum responsibility and accountability for the kids who attend government schools.
While this is the case, here in India. The government schools in the west have set a great example. The parents make a beeline to get admission in to these schools, because the teachers in these schools work for what they are promised for showcasing their abilities and most importantly promising responsibility towards their students.
The need of the hour is we need teachers who function not just for their paychecks, but showcase responsibility and accountability for their jobs.
And we need parents who instill an ambition in their child to take up a career of what their good at.
We need children who know what they want to become when they grow up, but not what their neighbor expects them to be. We need teachers and parents to teach the kids to have a goal and work towards to it, rather than run a race, without knowing where they would end up to. Instead of giving the student a goal, make him come up with a goal and work towards it and that’s the secret sauce for bringing out a well-rounded, successful child.
The teachers, parents and students are building blocks of the education system and who should work hand in hand in bring in the soul to it, not just bring up the literacy rate of the society. Don’t just bring up an Engineer or a Doctor, bring up that SKILL in your child, for him to decide his future.
-From the teachings of HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamy,
Arka International School Inauguration Event
