Happy Teacher’s Day: The Changing Culture of Teaching All Around the World
Change is the only constant. The recent Coronavirus pandemic has proved this all over again; time cannot be arrested and it waits for none. Time keeps moving dynamically and we have to change ourselves according to it. The ‘stay home’ construct has not only locked down our work and lives, but also the lives of young innocent children, who have had rejoiced in laughing, running, jumping and playing together with friends in a school set up; who have had waved a good morning or shy goodbye at their teachers expecting appreciative smile from them, are now behind the doors of their small home, watching the world pass by from their windows. Even if life halts, education for children cannot and should not be closed, therefore school administration in most countries, have shifted their educational programs online.
The response to the coronavirus has demonstrated how technology can help transform how we teach and learn. But the push for change started long before the pandemic struck, and it will go on long after the threat subsides. For years, policymakers in the US and other developed countries have been trying to figure out a transformative approach towards learning which will go beyond online lessons. However, many developing countries are yet to figure out the online method of education because in these places, most people even today, do not have a stable internet connection in all the homes; people go hungry for days, therefore, such homes cannot afford the luxuries of the internet or expensive equipment like laptops to access online learning.
Covid-19 has changed working techniques in most professions. While corporate sectors have sold their offices to encourage more profitable work-from-home for their employees, researchers are mostly at break, while authors and writers are still vying for options as to how you can publish your own book, the role of teachers is getting harder with each passing day. Teachers in most places, have been so far trained to work in a classroom environment, where they were required to demonstrate something on the blackboard besides passing down a lecture that would automatically reach the ears of 50 students together. With the online model permeating within a short notice into the education system, teachers haven’t had the time to get the technological training required for functioning in the remote model.
Conducting classes over zoom, especially that which includes 50 or more students at a time requires a huge amount of skill set to log everyone in. Teachers are facing difficulties everyday to solve the issues of attendance with students joining over zoom or other edu tech platforms; sometimes time is getting wasted in bringing everybody in, but teachers with their exceptional brilliance are trying each day to achieve the school syllabus within such a short time.
Its been weeks since the pandemic has struck and its going to be the same henceforth. This is an added pressure on teachers to keep their students safe which still protecting their educational progress. Examination over the online system is also a new experience for teachers in countries like India. It isn’t an independent job like that of an author where you can choose self-publishing to publish your own book. Teachers have to abide by the administrative structure, principal’s guidelines and syllabus requirements to take an examination for students who are at home. It takes hours of planning to organize an at-home test for kids who are naughty always, and also not waste time or allow them to cheat.
Since the beginning of pandemic, since education has shifted to online forums, attendance has become an issue. Many children do not turn up. As I have discussed, many underprivileged children don’t even have the facilities of laptops and internet. Getting them together, making sure that all of them get the right opportunities to study have become the responsibilities of the teacher. They are the academic coach, guide, friend and instructor to their students. Communicating regular assignments through WhatsApp, correcting submissions on mobile and resending feedbacks are additionally tasks that class teachers are having to attend to. Besides encouraging students in class participation; making sure that maximum attendance is fetched in every online class is especially challenging for new age teachers.
These are just the visible consequences that we can see online learning is providing to teachers. However, how they have achieved the huge shift is another story. When schools decided to lock down suddenly, teachers across the world were in a mess; they did not know what to do, how to work through this challenge. Shifting things online, required some time, organization and curriculum change which wasn’t allowed as much in many places. Everything seemed overwhelming. But in the next few hours of the decision, teachers go together, formed groups on Facebook and WhatsApp, invited students and their parents so that they remain updated, and kept sending out their plans and assignments. They managed the whole thing within a couple of weeks and the result is, students are seamlessly attending online classes and participating in exams online as well.
Teachers have always led the foundations of humanity; they are efficient beyond our imagination. It is amazing to find them multitasking to balance their work-students-personal life like a champion. Covid has once again proved the worth of teachers, who have done an incredible job, all over the world; also, in developing and underdeveloped countries, to keep education accessible to multitudes of children, so that whatever happens, children’s futures are never compromised with. They have pushed their boundaries and gone beyond limits to teach; the job they are best at. We must get together to congratulate all our teachers, on this teacher’s day for their remarkable contributions to our lives and the society.
