Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, from philosopher to President, educator to chairman of the first post-independence commission now known as University Education Commission or Radhakrishnan Commission, emphasized that his birth anniversary on 5th September should be celebrated as ‘Teachers’ Day’ each year.
Since 1962 this day is being commemorated to remind us of the significance of teachers’ role for their contribution in social, cultural, and economic health for the upliftment of the nation.
Professionally sound teachers are like the gardeners of our children and illuminating lamps that soften the hearts of students in the classroom. They unlock the minds of students, develop basic values like love, emphatic attitude, and obviously helps them to understand the difference between good and bad, legal and illegal, and right and wrong likewise from the words of John Dewey teachers are ‘prophets of true God’. The day reminds us that professionally sound teachers are the symbol of creativity and a source of knowledge which they carry while performing their professional duties so that the seeds of superlative qualities will be cultivated among students.
The role of teachers is always challenging in the classroom due to individual differences among students. But the best teachers always respond to this challenge with pride. Besides this challenge they may be asked to be oppressed, biased, and ignorant but they grow by confronting such difficulties, hindrances, challenges in classroom. The best and inspiring teachers unburden the luggage of caste, religion, gender, and ethnicity, which widens the gap for exploration and learning in the classroom , breaking the chain of stereotypical behaviour. They do not create a wall of hatred to divide students based on caste, religion, gender, and class. They develop the listening capacity, that is, they listen meekly to students’ arguments and remain calm. Their job is the cultivation of minds, overcoming the constraints and barriers; they motivate, inspire, arouse interest and hope among tender minds.
The end-product of education should be a free creative man, who can battle against historical circumstances and adversities of nature
Unlike in the past, the battle against the current situation particularly reminds us to glorify the teachers’ efforts in e-learning because the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak induced all educational institutes to wrap up their physical classrooms. The countries throughout the world support e-learning, the web-based mode of education, as an alternative way, so that learning is not be disrupted. To make virtual learning successful teachers play an indispensable role. Covid-19 pandemic dramatically expanded the role of teachers. They work not only to transfer teaching content and resources into the online space but also to become proficient enough to access the appropriate tools. They adopt various virtual modes and are pulsating to make the teaching-learning process alive. However, some teachers paint a dismal picture and some are cheerful in the e-learning process during the Covid-19 pandemic. No doubt some teachers make every effort to learn digital skills informally. Nonetheless, some teachers struggle
Covid-19 brought a paradigm shift in the teaching-learning process and brought into light the necessity of e-literacy among the teachers for their professional growth. This professional growth is one of the necessary competencies of education because teachers shouldering the major responsibility of imparting education to this generation must match the expectations of students. This will enable teachers to leverage on each student’s abilities, interests, learning styles and grab their attention and help students use their digital knowledge aptly. Otherwise, it will fail to acknowledge students’ learning outcomes, their knowledge, and their cognition level.