TEACHER AND LAW OF THE LAND: A THOUGHT ON THE TEACHER’S DAY

Our first President Dr. Radha Krishnan, the great philosopher of India was born on the 5^th day of September which is celebrated as teacher’s day.

 It is an old saying that the largest tree you have ever seen is the result of a single seed sown and that seed is sown by a teacher at a very tender age of the child.The impact conscientious teachers make and influence they weild on the young minds ,hearts ,spirits and lives of those whom they educate is immense and incalculable .

It reminds me a little story -Once a teacher gave an assignment to his young students to draw something for which they were grateful. A student  who was very timid child of the class had drawn only a hand which made the whole class laugh at him.Some said -it is like a policeman ,other suggested half done work,hand without arm and so on .The teacher went close to the child and asked what he meant for the hand he had drawn.The child replied ‘Its your hand teacher ’

The relation of a teacher and a  learner in whatever capacity is one of the most interesting and delightful in the world

TEACHING  means:

T-is for Telling and retelling what the teacher absorbed through his diligent study

E-is for Expecting student to absorb what has been taught

A-is for  Asking student to evaluate what he has learnt

C-Challenge to bring out the best out of a student

H –stands for Hopes from even the hopeless student

I-stands for basic Intelligence to be developed

N-is for  Nurturing the seeds

G –stands for  Giving yourself to the mission to teach or to be taught,both ways 

 

Teacher works in an atmosphere of idealism dealing with soul and heart, with ideas and ideals  The basic things never change even if we make hue and cry that the world has changed .If we forget to talk of heart and soul ,that does not mean they are vanished,they will remain there ,we have to uncover them ,dig them out To the child, it is the teacher who is key to the knowledge ,understanding and wisdom,every thing starts for the student  even now from first day at school

But today while talking about education and its commercialization ,we have no hasitation to accept that the  Concept of teacher and teaching is totally changed now It is unfortunate to note that our childern find more interest in other modes than  direct contact with the teacher  and are being educated and informed  through TV,horror movies,internet,facebook,twitter etc .Institutes are opened on every corner to allure them with rosy pictures and every one wants to become rich without putting much hard work and spending adequate time .Such institutes are no way academies dedicated for the cause of education ,they are commercial shops for the pupose of earning more and more and so are their aims to prepare young generation for a race . There is a race and race without stopwithout any spirit of competition   Our society has been trapped into a situation that teaching is a profession and to safe guard the interest of a student,we accept the situation that a teacher is a service provider and we may need to move the court in case of negligence on the part of a teacher or management or both. There is strong control over the activities of a teacher, may it be from the side of school management, parents associations dominating the school authorities, funding lobbies and the attitude of parents towards teachers considering them as paid up service providers.

Apex court Supreme Court of India time and again warned not to consider education as commercial activity through various judgments:

            Supreme Court has always been of the opinion that teaching is a noble profession and should not be commercialized. It has time and again through various judgments expressed its views while deciding the case of University of Delhi-AIR 1993 SC 1873 Justice Gajentagadkar said:

 

                        ‘Education in its true aspect is more a mission and a vocation rather than a profession or trade or business, however wide may be the denotation of the two letters word’

  

We should not forget the work done by  those eminent luminaries in the field of law, Justice Krishnan Iyer, Justice Matthew, Justice Chanderachud, Justice Bhagwati & Justice Desai propounded new theory of dynamic living law ,an instrument of judicial creativity and social reform. The above jurists have assumed the role of a creator, planner, architect, by liberally interpreting the statues  to observe the purpose and intention of the law. Similarly we must bear in mind that any law passed by the parliament does not mean to degrade the noble work or profession and humiliate or insult those who work for noble cause but to preserve its spirit. A teacher is not and cannot be a subject to the  allegations against him/her and law should be invoked only under a situation when a teacher defaults by not  maintaining the dignity of a teacher in its proper spirit.

 

But unfortunately We have taller buildings but shorter tempers ,wider freeways but narrower view points

 

We may pledge on this juncture of teachers day to do better things. Think in better way ,not to make every issue litigation on the issue of teaching and teacher. Wish and   pray to almighty god that EACH ONE OF US MAY HAVE

 

Enough happiness to keep us sweet

Enough trials to keep us strong

Enough sorrow to to keep us human

Enough hope to keep us happy

Enough failure to keep us humble

Enough determination to make each day

 A better day than yesterday.

 

 

Important Judgements

 

“Imparting education by an educational institute for consideration falls within the ambit of service as defined in the consumer protection act.The students are the   consumers of that service”

 

Budhist Mission Dental College and Hospital v Bhupesh Khurana and others 2009 SC [CP]373

 

“School Board is not a service provider and a student who takes an examination conducted by it is not a consumer and consequently his complaint under the consumer protection act will not be maintainable against it “

 

Bihar School Examination Board v Suresh Prasad Sinha 2009 SC[CP]1057

 

 

 

 Dr. Prem Lata

 

Previous

Next