It is not just another profession, it comes with a lot of responsibility. And our readers urge to up the quality of teachers and teaching as the future of the country depends on them, including many lives and the futures

Teaching has become an alternative career for many. But teachers are supposed to be the source of inspiration and motivation. Unfortunately, nowadays we hardly get any inspiration from them. So, I don’t think any random person should be allowed to be a teacher unless they have that passion to teach, inspire, and are able to uplift the spirit of their students in anyway possible. On top of that, teachers, especially in schools, have a long-term impact on the minds of students, so they have to be someone students can look up to. You cannot call yourself a teacher if you just teach the syllabus. It goes beyond that and people need to understand this seriously before choosing this career.

— Binaya Shrestha (Ynb), Kamalbinayak

‘If you can’t do anything, I suggest you become a teacher’. This is a common piece of advice given to the unemployed Nepali people. But teachers are not limited to just completing the syllabus, they should be able to inspire and motivate students too.

I have a teacher who not only helped me in alleviating my percentage in studies but inspired and motivated me to pursue a career in teaching too in the hope that some day, someone will write about their favourite and inspiring role model.

— Rahul Upadhyay, Bhaktapur

Education is not a dance bar where a dancer comes, makes one or two moves and gets paid. This is an art where a teacher moulds young minds and carves on it. So at the end students become a pure reflection of his/her teacher. That is why the education system is an institution and a teacher is much more than the institution. We regard teacher as GOD.

Such a person cannot be any Tom, Dick or Harry. He must be qualified, he should be the one who would sacrifice everything for teaching. No one has the right to play with the lives of others. If you want money, there are many other ways out there. This is a serious profession and let’s be serious about this.

— Radhika Poudel, Kalimati, Kathmandu

Teachers have great responsibilities with regards to the future of the students. In my opinion, only an experienced, deserving, and qualified person should be chosen as a teacher, and not just any one who pursues it as an alternative career choice. Teachers should also show great respect to their work so that they can lead their students on the right path and show them the light and pull them from darkness to light.

— Kushal Phuyal, Bageshwori 7, Bhaktapur

A person who has passion to become a teacher can be a teacher who understands the responsibilities and duties of being a teacher. He can be a bona fide teacher who can easily tackle the problems of a student. But nowadays, teaching sector has become a mere alternative career choice for any person. Now any person can become a teacher when they fail in their aim. It has become easy to choose teaching sector but every talented student cannot be a good teacher and understand the responsibilities of a teacher. A person with good certificate cannot become good teacher. So it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education to improve the quality of teaching sector as it is the most respected sector.

— Rajan Yadav, Kachorwa, Bara

Like a student of management cannot diagnose the disease of a human being, similarly students of other faculty cannot have an empathetic quality for better teaching and learning process. We should not select any random person for teaching since teaching is one of the most crucial professions, which determines the career of children. From the beginning of education, children take teachers as a role model. So, a teacher cannot be the teacher, delivering certain contents from the course book, rather a teacher should teach students how to learn. For this purpose, a teacher has to act as the prompter, counsellor, motivator, tutor and the parent, respectively. To accomplish all these roles and responsibilities, only the specialist teacher should be selected for teaching in schools or colleges.

We can see a good example of our education system. Students in Nepal study English language from an early age to graduation level, but when they need to sit for IELTS or TOFEL examination, they need to search for an institution for preparation. I believe this is the result of selection of bad teachers. So, we should select trained specialists, who can motivate and teach students.

— Sangita Sapkota

A bad teacher produces incompetent students. If a college/school recruits an unqualified teacher, there is a good chance that at least 30 (depending on the class size) students become less competent than what they could have been. And when there is this same system in many educational institutions across the nation, the nation doesn’t see the best for the next 30 years. I think it is a major reason why the education quality in Nepal is not up to the mark.

Education is something that betters society through the impartation of knowledge and skills. It would have been better had someone been a teacher because she/he really wanted to mentor, share experiences, and inspire the students, and not just to get a job. However, owing to huge unemployment, the situation seems too difficult to curb, but not impossible. Rigorous teachers’ training, licensing, and screening (mostly in case of government schools and colleges) while recruiting teachers could curb this bad fate to a great extent.

— Anonymous

The person who shares the information to inspire and motivate is a teacher. This person has a positive role to play to bring change in the society. In the present scenario we find lots of people being interested in teaching profession and are involved in it, but some unqualified and untrained quantities are also mixed in this profession. The impact of good education lasts forever so or the sake of quality education dedicated resources should be preferred by the applicants.

People have different opportunities and are seeking for better options so some people want to make teaching career as a ladder to succeed. The circumstance is such that if a person doesn’t get other opportunities s/he prefers teaching. Government has to take strong action to enrol qualified candidates to be a teacher. Teaching profession is an art and science so s/he plays an important role to produce skilled manpower for the future. The profession of a teacher is a essential part so while choosing a teacher, instead of random person, qualified and trained persons should be chosen as a teacher so that it gives fruitful outcomes for the nation.

— Asit Baral, Pokhara-7, Masbar

The significance of a teacher can be defined as a person who leads students towards a better future, the one who directs, cares, guides, and supervises the students and moulds a better future for them. The success of any student depends upon the quality of teachers provided. Teachers are the kingpin of any educative process. It is also true that only a motivated teacher can create motivated, creative and an innovative future for their students. Proper teaching methodologies, interactive classrooms, feedback systems et cetera accompanied with quality teaching makes an influencing atmosphere for better education. I remember one of the great sayings about teacher which states:

The mediocre teacher tells.

The good teacher explains.

The superior teacher demonstrates.

The great teacher inspires.

Therefore, the teaching profession should not be made the lender of the last resort or an alternative career choice in any school or college.

— Bidyaaz, Kathmandu

Teachers have vital role to play in one’s life. Starting from A, B, C, D... they are the ultimate guides of our life. Their guidelines decide our future. Besides our parents, teachers are source of our good behaviour, attitude practice and knowledge. Their motivation and inspiration can change the life of a student.

In this context teacher is regarded as a god in our society so they should have deserving character to be a teacher. Teaching profession cannot be taken as alternative one. Random teacher cannot be the role model to the student. When they can hardly show performance in their given subject how can they provide extra knowledge? They themselves may be confused. This can ruin the life of a student.

In such case teachers also should think — why should I play with these lives for the sake of money. They should improve themselves and if cannot they should leave the profession.

— Anonymous

Teachers are not only those who teach students to earn their living, but also personalities who become a role model for their students’ bright future. It requires high level of intellect and talent to become a teacher. No one can become a teacher overnight. It has been seen that quality of education is deteriorating a lot nowadays. With existence of too many private schools and colleges in our neighbourhood, education has become like a commodity. Some of these schools and colleges are established by individuals or groups who are profit driven. They are hiring less qualified or less demanding person(s) randomly.

In order to minimise their cost and maximise their profits, these education sharks are compromising on quality of education, and our nation’s future is being deprived of quality education and ultimately the education system is put to risk. Hence, to improve this situation, only highly qualified and deserving teachers should be allowed to teach students, as future relies on students and we ought to seek only quality education for our nation’s bright future.

— Suvigya Sapkota, Gaushala, Kathmandu

To become a teacher, one needs to have a better knowledge of a certain subject matter. Not only good teaching skills but teachers must also have the capability to inspire and encourage the students. However, people have taken teaching as an option for their basic income. As teachers are responsible for students’ future, any arbitrary person cannot be a teacher.

A certain criterion or experience should be taken into consideration for being a teacher in school or colleges.

In my opinion, being a teacher is not an easy task. Schools are considered as students’ second home, so teachers are regarded as their second parents. Therefore, students’ mentality, behaviour and discipline depend on teachers. So, any random person should not be allowed to be a teacher in schools and colleges.

— Asmita Rajopadhyaya

‘A drop of ink might make a million think’. Teachers are the people who are the ones to motivate their pupils, no matter what field. Teaching might seem like an interesting thing to do. In fact, being a tutor might be fun. However, this trend of running classes without proper qualifications, experiences and interest is quite harmful for the students.

For instance, I have many youngsters in my classroom preparing for their IELTS exam. The problem is always the same — many institutes are hiring teachers who do not specialise in this field. As a matter of fact, it is no surprise to find students being delighted after I reveal the real techniques.

Working as an IELTS tutor has been my passion and it has brought me lots of good memories. My new students are always inspired by those who have taken lessons in my class and were able to achieve a good score.

Hence, a random person should not play with the future of many students.

— Christopher Sharma, Pokhara-6, Lake Side

The development of a country also depends on the teachers of that very country. The students are supposed to be the pillars of the nation and the future of students is in the hands of teachers. The students are like clay whose future can be moulded in any shape carved by teachers. They are the important personalities in the country because they inspire and motivate students which results in the production of effective manpower.

Really, teaching has become an alternative career choice. So the persons who become hopeless to achieve their aim, try teaching career to serve their livelihood. This is the cause teaching has not become effective in our country. The main root is the random selection of teachers. The random selection should be discouraged and proper selection of teachers on merit basis needs to be encouraged.

— Ravikant Yadav, Majhariya -06, Bara

My opinion about teachers must be graduates from universities was sidelined when I read a book Diwaswopna by Gijubhai Badheka, the Indian educationist. Though he was a high court lawyer, he started teaching, applying montessori methodologies, in a playful environment. Therefore, anyone can become a teacher provided s/he has enthusiasm and can perform creatively with dedication for progress. And I dislike those who fail to succeed in other profession and eventually opt for teaching with no creativity.

Teachers are those who can show you horizon with beam of sunlight. I adore my gurubuwa and his colleagues who are school teachers. They introduced journalism course for their students while other schools stuck with the conservative model.

— Melsam Ojha, Kathmandu, Nepal

People should select their respective job according to their qualification. It means they should apply for jobs as per their education, training, and experience. Same goes for teaching profession. Otherwise it will be merely called decision made in hurry. While going through the context of Nepal, recently there has been a trend — when people don’t find suitable job, they land up teaching which really sounds and even looks ridiculous. Teaching is not only an act of imparting knowledge but it also is a medium to encourage, motivate, inspire, support, care and even assist students so that they will become successful in their life. Hence, this modern but bad trend should be brought to an end as soon as possible. Teaching should be allowed only to those people who are not just interested but even suited to do it as per the requirement in every educational institution.

— Pratik Shrestha, Buddhanagar, Baneshwor

Teachers are the compass for students who direct towards the right path to achieve better opportunities in the future. Thus, random people should not be selected as teachers. Teaching profession is a holy profession and people should be ready to sacrifice his/her time and effort for the entire life to make people understand things.

I suggest the government to create an independent body to regulate and supervise all the teaching professionals all over the country. They should set minimum requirements for the eligibility as teachers in private and public schools and colleges. S/he must attend and pass the series of test taken to evaluate the competency and skills of the people. The test should evaluate major skills such as communication, presentation, convincing skills and willingness to do the job. After that, they should be liable to get teaching license issued by government. This process will create competent and willing candidates to pursue career in teaching field which will ultimately produce skilled manpower.

— Piter Gurung

Allowing random people to become teachers will definitely put a lot at stake. The future of education will be perilous. In terms of quality of education provided; new graduates and inexperienced people, who view teaching as alternative career option, are no match against the experienced professionals. But when we see it from a different angle, we can perceive the situation in a different view. It has increased the employment and circulation of money. Motivated people motivate others. The factors like inspiring and motivating students should be taught to them. The experienced teachers must not fear that the new comers will replace them and must always motivate the new teachers. If they succeed, the new teachers will motivate students eventually. So allowing random people to be teachers in schools and colleges that are mushrooming lately can be viewed positively.

— Manoj

Indeed teachers are the mentors who impart us knowledge, the knowledge that goes beyond curriculum. And to hold such responsibility is a challenging job. But nowadays teaching profession has become a last resort and alternative career option. This makes it a major loophole.

As the shape, design, and structure of pottery is in potter’s hand, similarly the attitude, belief, temperament, perception of the students is in a teacher’s hand. A good teacher teaches not only the syllabus but teaches how to live, conduct oneself, and contribute to society.

— Niranjan Khadka, Chandragiri-20, Naikap

To address this issue, perhaps teaching license should be made mandatory in government schools. Nowadays tea-cher’s training is given in the initial phase. At least it makes the teachers indulge in the teaching field, though not wishfully.

Teaching is a responsible profession where students are motivated to be respectable citizens of a country. They are facilitated to adopt highly regarded profession in their future. Thus, teachers inspire their students and they always need to be the role model for their students.

— Anonymous

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

All our achievements, big or small, give us some kind of satisfaction and at times we feel proud of it too though we don’t show it before others. What is that one thing that you are most proud of? Why? Explain.

Send your replies in not more than 200 words by Friday, August 21 by 2 pm to Features Department, The Himalayan Times, e-mail: features@thehimalayantimes.com