Over the past few weeks, the social media is flooded with posters and banners prepared by government school teachers asking parents to enroll their kids in the government schools. The teachers are actively participating in the campaign to identify the out of school children and also motivate parents to enrol kids in government schools, in the kindergarten section.
The village level campaign has been started as the enrollment in government schools has witnessed a downfall over the years, and also the government has failed to retain students in government schools during the transition from primary to middle and high school level.
Over the past few weeks, the government school teachers are creating an impression that the government schools are getting ownership from society and parents are enrolling their kids in government schools.
The teachers are portraying a rosy picture of government schools on social media to convince the parents to enroll their kids in schools. Slogans like free uniform, free textbooks, free education are seen everywhere on Facebook, twitter and other social media platforms and teachers expect that such slogans will bring revolution in the ailing government education sector.
The teachers are trying their best to instil confidence among the parents to prefer government schools over private schools. But such initiatives are unlikely to prove fruitful for the government as the teachers motivating other parents to own government schools have their own children in private schools.
It is an old saying that charity begins at home. While launching student enrollment drives in villages and towns they are seen waiting in long queues outside private schools to admit their kids in these institutions.
All this sends out a clear message that the teachers themselves don’t own these government schools and that is why they prefer private schools for their own kids.
Anyone can question these teachers, how they can motivate anyone if they are not able to convince their conscience to prefer government school for their own kids. How can they influence other parents with the slogans of free textbooks, free uniforms and free education when they spend huge amounts on tuition fees and text books prescribed by private schools for their kids?
Given my own experience as being associated with the education sector, it won’t be wrong to say that government school teachers do not trust the schools where they teach and earn their living as far as the education of their children is concerned. Instead, their choice is the private schools. The government school teachers seem to believe in the ideology that they should earn from government schools and spend it on education of children in private schools.
There are around 10780 government schools in the Valley with an enrollment of over 6.50 lakh students. Despite having qualified teachers and drawing hefty salaries the government schools are considered to be meant for poor and underprivileged children. This ideology has been propagated by the government school teachers themselves because they have never owned these schools as parents. So, the question arises how they can ask anyone else to show own these schools.
It is indeed a challenging situation for the government school teachers as parents are ready to send their wards to private schools by paying monthly fees in thousands where teachers are getting about Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 as monthly salaries.
But surprisingly, the parents, including government school teachers are not willing to trust government schools where no fee is charged and teachers are employed at a monthly salary of Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000.
The government teachers lack confidence because they do not believe in their own education sector and are not confident of the competence of government school teachers employed in government schools.
Being active on social media and convincing other parents won’t make any success unless the government school teachers enroll their own kids in government schools.
Let the government school teachers take a lead in discharging their kids from private schools and enrolling them in government schools. Such a move will encourage others to believe and impose faith in government schools.
Let the teachers remember that charity begins at home and instead of selling slogans, the teachers should move ahead with a belief that their own kids will be groomed better in the government education sector.
Government education sector will excel only after a government teacher becomes a government school parent. Otherwise shouting slogans and selling benefits of schemes will not bring a change in this sector. Hope the government wakes up to the real cause before it is too late. And yes, what applies to the government teacher applies to the government employees, preferably the officers.