Letter to BS: Want to be a good teacher, don't take students for granted

This refers to “Learning from the   classroom” (January 16). Over the  years, government schools in most states have enhanced their status  by infrastructure development and  an increase in enrolments. However, most of them are lagging  behind in terms of the quality of education. Since the students in government schools come from different social strata, they face many learning problems. Their upliftment in academics is a difficult task. Teachers in government schools must take teaching as a mission. They must not take the students for granted. Children at every level must acquire certain skills and it is the responsibility of the teachers to help develop such skills.  

With regard to primary school  education, many areas need radical  changes. A wrong approach to early  stage learning has led to defects in  primary education. Students must learn certain basic skills from their teachers. Learning by doing, the play-way method, learning  through music and dance and so  on are some aspects of early stage  learning. Instead of “covering” the  syllabus, teachers must focus on  “uncovering” facts. A kid’s mind  cannot and should not be filled  with a lot of information. 

The fundamentals must be clearly understood before students move on to  more serious things. What is the  use of teaching literature to kids if  they don’t know the alphabets? In  short, teachers in government  schools must realise that imparting  quality education to children must  become a matter of priority.   Venu G S  Kollam

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