Tony de Sa wrote a very intelligent and insightful posting on school teachers, and what ails the school system. I agree with most of what he says and would like to pick his experienced brains for some more answers.
----------- Tony de Sa (TS) wrote Many a time, individuals take up to teaching because of the fairly attractive pay packet. Cecil Pinto asks: Yes indeed. One must admit that despite all their lamentations school teachers in Government aided schools earn a very decent salary by Indian standards. Why is it then that so many teachers moonlight as insurance agents, real estate brokers, contractors etc. If they have so much spare time and energies shouldn't they be using that time to prepare for classes and to improve their teaching methodologies? Also can Tony give us some insights on the bane of tuitions? One of our local schools in Aldona (St. Thomas Girls High School), and I am sure many other schools, has special tuition classes for the 'better' students in the 10th standard. This is to get better academic results such as State Ranks, Distinctions etc which raises the school's prestige and profile. How very different from the time when I was in school (St. Thomas Boys School) where special classes were held for the 'not so good' students and the bright students were banned from attending. That's the way it should be. It is the poorer students who need special attention. -------------- TS: Some students simply cannot study a given subject. Take Mathematics or Hindi, these subjects are often beyond the ability of some students. Shouldn't there be a system in place which allows them to study these subjects up to a certain level and then drop them at the SSC level? CP: I couldn't agree more with this. Many normal students have great difficulty only with languages and/or Maths and thus remain 'SSC-fail' for life or for many years. They are perfectly ok with other subjects and one subject becomes a stumbling block all their academic life. SSC is a basic qualification and I don't see why someone who does not know trigonometry and logarithms is any way handicapped in his life or career. ----------- TP: A reading of the book "Wilt" by Tom Sharpe would give some insight into this aspect (though humorously). CP: I suggest that Tony, who certainly has a fine knack for writing, should start posting all the humorous anecdotes of his 38 year career as a teacher. Maybe if they are interesting enough it could be made into a book as was done with 'Domnic's Goa". Cheers! Cecil =============
