Why teachers should take the same exams along with their students
Teacher’s day is a celebration of our beloved teachers and their exceptional contribution to the society.
They shape the lives of students, right from the start. They teach us, inspire us, scold us and help us so that we excel in our career. They bring out our fullest potential and believe in us.
Teaching, thus, is an esteemed profession as teachers create the future of the country. Students are able to achieve a high position in life, and turn out to become doctors, engineers, IAS officers, etc. because of the excellent education they are imparted. It is accurately quoted “Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions.”
Some students enlighten the country's name in the world. One such example is of Satya Nadella, who is an American-Indian engineer and the current CEO of Microsoft. Nadella’s educational background undoubtedly played a prominent role in forming his technical and leadership expertise. He received a degree in Electrical Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology located in India. Another legendary example is of Indra Nooyi, an Indian American business executive who served as Chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo for 12 years. Nooyi completed her post graduate programme at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. She has been included in the list of “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” regularly.
In India, teachers are highly respected. There are many Sanskrit quotes written on teachers defining their value and greatness: “Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara, Guru Shakshat Parabrahma Tatmaishree Guruwe Namaha.” It means the teache holds the same position as God in Hindu culture. Another famous verse from the renowned Sufi poet, Kabir Das goes: “Guru Govind dou khade kake lagu pai, balihari Guru aapne Govind diyo bataye”. Roughly translated, this means that if God and my teacher both were standing together and one is faced with the dilemma of who should be respected first, one should bow in front of the teacher first as they are the one who show us the path that leads to God.
Everyone looks up to teachers. It is, therefore, a great responsibility on their part and they should do fairness to this noble position. However, teaching is just like any other profession. On the one hand, some teachers are extremely hard working. On the other hand, there are, of course, some teachers who do not take this charge seriously enough; and they give a bad name to the entire profession. It only takes a few rotten ones to ruin the applecart.
Most institutions require teachers to have a proper degree and certification within a specific subject area. With this requirement, we assume that all teachers would be skilled enough to teach the subject area they were appointed to teach. Unfortunately, some teachers do not know the content knowledge well enough to explain it. They don't prepare the lessons and lose credibility among their students. Some teachers lack motivation. They invest the smallest amount of time in grading the papers. They don't grade the paper correctly, that leads to dissatisfaction about grades on paper, project, exam, or for the course itself among students making them less interested in studies.
Teachers should strive to improve in their subject area on a daily basis. They must commit to advancement. If a teacher lacks this commitment, they may not be suited for the profession. Margaret Elizabeth Sangster rightly said, “No one should teach who is not in love with teaching.”
For solving the issue and to make sure this noble profession is not disgraced, a few initiatives can be taken:
Firstly, teachers should give exams with the students. It will make teachers revise lessons properly and update their knowledge on a regular basis. It will motivate the teachers to review the course of the subject area properly leading to better quality education. It will impact teachers who have just mugged up lectures. They would not score well in the exam leading to filtering only good teachers.
Secondly, exams should always be checked by another examiner and not the teachers themselves. Sometimes teachers tend let their personal biases cloud their judgement, hence, resulting in improper grading. To resolve this, IDs should be given to teacher and students while writing the exam. Once they write the exam, papers should be submitted to another examiner who has no information about the teacher's and student's name. If the examiner knows that one of the papers is written by the teacher himself, he would be more focused on grading papers accurately.
Teachers giving exam with students and then getting paper checked by another examiner will create a better Indian education system. This way, students will be more motivated and would strive to score more than teachers. On the other side, teachers would be honing their crafts further to score the highest marks leading to a more motivated atmosphere of learning.
The student is the future. They deserve the best education, and only a good teacher can provide that. William Arthur Ward said, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires”.
Education is inspiration; the teacher’s job is not the mere act of imparting bookish knowledge to students, but it is the art of widening their horizons.