Secondly, he has pointed to the role of teachers that would be so crucial to the overall development of a child that sans such role the child would merely cram notes to produce these in his answer script without knowing anything at all or without really appreciating what his teacher has taught him if anything has been taught in the right manner at all. A whole essay can be written on what role a teacher must play at the school level, but what is perhaps paramount is whether he has the ability, trained or otherwise, to motivate his students, arouse curiosity in them, and make them think creatively or out-of-box. Such teachers, unfortutely, in government schools – mostly those in rural areas where education can be the most empowering tool – are a rarity. But this is what we want. Thirdly, Sangma has talked of the importance of digital space and the realization of this importance by teachers. “Teachers should make the best use of technology and eble the students to learn faster and better,” he said. There is no gainsaying that technology is a game-changer in today’s world, and it is more so when it comes to the teaching-learning enterprise that has the most important role to play in the making of an empowered society, a knowledge society that the Sam Pitroda-led tiol Knowledge Commission had dwelt at length when the UPA was in power. Much water has flowed down the Brahmaputra since then, but technology is still alien in most of the government schools in rural areas. Since “technology has ebled us to access a wide variety of information and pedagogical tools”, to quote Sangma, its use in schools, mostly in the state-run ones across the Northeast, cannot be overemphasized. But how pro-active have the State governments here been? We are talking of government schools, not the private ones in which technology has penetrated to a satisfactory extent. And fourthly, the Tura MP has urged the State governments to work in tandem with “like-minded organizations and stakeholders” so that the best of educatiol facilities are ensured, with the thrust also being on regular teachers’ training programmes and orientation courses. It goes without saying that most teachers in government schools are not adequately trained to teach, not just to lecture – the best of educationists across the world have repeatedly pointed to the difference that does exist between a teacher and a lecturer in their research works on education along with educatiol psychology. The teachers in question are not really oriented so that they take on board their students by infusing in them interest and innovation as they embark on the track of learning and of eventually becoming human capital in the future. This is very, very important.
