Mission mode teachers

With the Class X and Class XII State board final results out, Assam is celebrating the dedicated, untiring efforts of teachers in private schools and junior colleges which have churned out toppers. There has been a heartening increase in the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) pass percentage this year, with 56.04 percent examinees clearing the hurdle. We can hope for better performances in coming years, which would help the State firmly put behind the depressing marks inflation debate. That controversy showed our students in poor light, and it seems the upcoming batches are fighting back. As for Higher Secondary exam results, the likes of Ramanuj Junior College and Geetanjali Junior College of Nagaon and Krishnakanta Handique Junior College of Barpeta have come up trumps with several rank holders. This is the time of the year when paeans of praise are sung for teachers of such institutions. They slog round the year with hardly a break to thoroughly equip their students for the test, besides imparting in them ‘exam-smartness’ so as to leave very little to chance. And what do these teachers get in return? It is all very well to talk smugly about their noble calling being its own reward. The State government is yet to bring about its much-promised legislation of improving the lot of schoolteachers in private sector. With many school managements hardly giving teachers their due, Dispur has been mulling for them minimum wages prescribed for ‘skilled workers’. The Kerala government meanwhile is proposing a Minimum Wages Act for teachers in private unaided schools, so as to attract the best minds to the profession. Clearly, our education planners need to aim higher and deliver on their promise.