Alexander the Great once said: “I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.”
Teacher’s day observed on September 5 every year in India is being observed in about 70 countries but on a different date. October 15 is World Teachers day. The birthday of Dr S Radhakrishnan, second president of India from 1962-67 who started his career as a teacher was chosen as Teachers day, in India, as he preferred to be remembered as a teacher always thou he held several prestigious positions - Ambassador, Vice Chancellor, Vice President and President of India.
Teacher’s day is being celebrated on routine lines - high praise for the profession, repetition of the great expectations from teachers, awards at National and State level. It is time to introspect teaching as a career and the role of the teacher in the present society. It is the occasion for recollecting a great personality standing in his immaculate long coat and dhoti worn in typical south Indian Panchakatcham with medal and turban, without which, Dr Radhakrishnan did not meet people.
Teaching is the noblest of all professions and lowest paid of all professions was a statement of yesteryears. Hence, the best brains opted for other avenues with greener pastures as their career. Teaching was opted as a last resort. But things changed radically. Today, the teachers in universities, colleges and schools are well paid thanks to regular pay revisions and concern shown by Central and State governments. Every teacher functions as a ladder for his students to go up in life while, he/she stays at the same place. Teachers are the real nation builders and function as pivot on which the entire nation revolves. They spread the light of knowledge.
William A. Ward said, “The Mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, the great teacher inspires”. The teachers aim at making sustained and substantive influence on the intellect of the students and inspire them in encouraging creative thinking and positive questioning. Ancient teachers Confucius, Socrates’, Plato, and Aristotle etc. followed this method. A teacher is venerable next only to parents. The teacher should have genuine interest and cent percent involvement in the job. Pythagoras, the Mathematician and Sir Isaac Newton, the scientist, were celebrated teachers who exhibited this quality. The teachers become illustrative and everlasting characters in our memory because of their deep involvement in the subject. Such teachers achieve unattainable recognition and everlasting respect from the entire student community.
The rapport with the students can be continuous, not by teaching the subject alone in the class room. They should instill morals and discipline in the minds of students to help them lead successful and happy life. Classic examples of teachers of percepts and preachers of morals are many like King Solomon, Buddha, etc. The whole society is concerned with the future of children, which is in the hands of a teacher because the teacher is the one and the only person capable of influencing the thoughts and deeds of the future generation. Every eminent teacher, dead or alive, leaves a stamp in the minds of the students forever and his/her degree of distinction very much depends on how efficiently the scared job is handled.
The great and lasting influence a teacher can have on the student’s life is undeniable and a good teacher is remembered forever. The teachers, the torchbearers of student’s transformation are very vital for a nation’s growth to its full potentiality. They play a key role in the removal of many social evils and work for transforming the society and upliftment of the students in their moral and spiritual plain is because of the passionate commitment of the teachers to their job of promoting human excellence.
How many of the teachers today are capable of enchanting and carrying their students with them. No doubt nowadays teachers prepare the students for exams, but it is doubtful if they prepare them for life too. Though the teaching profession is eugolsied with all superlative adjectives, a careful observation of the role of present day teachers in government/semi-government/private sector institutions displays a very sorry state of affairs in many respects because of their own volition and also because of several extraneous factors.
The appeal among job aspirants towards this teaching profession is gradually fading with the lure of money in other career streams. The teaching work force is dwindling leaving a large number of unqualified successors to fill their shoes. The teachers are being criticized for not maintaining high standards of instruction. Though parents are struggling to provide first class education to their children, as it is the passport to better life, they despair at the poor quality of teaching in the present modern educational shops. Somewhere, our education system has gone wrong. There is a need for teachers to connect with the students at every level instead of resorting to average teaching in the class room. Text books are nearly being read out in the class rooms irrespective of whether the children understand or not. Many experts feel that all this mess is due to lack of quality training for teachers. There are no innovations in teacher educational programmes. There is a dearth of teaching training content. The teachers are being trained with archival material.
In the context of private institutions, many teachers do not stick to the profession for long. With bleak salaries, the profession has lost its appeal and has become more of a stop gap profession for many. The teachers getting meager salaries of Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 5,000 per month show the broad daylight exploitation by managements though they charge exorbitant tuition fee and other fees from students. Lack of competitive remuneration for these teachers is the root cause for the dismal performance of many teachers. It became less lucrative line of work and is recourse for those with lesser skills than others. People are entering this profession with no passion for teaching. The salary situation in government/ semi government sector Institutions is completely different. Now, they are enjoying much better scales almost comparable to software industry/ Civil Services.
In fact this profession with many holidays, lesser number of working days, with clear cut summer vacation provides lot of mental peace and leisure, which can be utilized for many purposeful and creative activities. The nature of job is such that these teachers always move and are surrounded by dynamic youngsters with bubbling enthusiasm, zest and zeal which also makes them youthful with positive vision and hope. When compared to other careers, doctor, lawyer, civil servant, software engineer, the career of a teacher has highest job satisfaction and respectability with no stress and tension. This is the only profession that is respected highly even after retirement. Teacher is often called Master Garu, forever.
The teacher is a psychologist, a mentor, a motivator capable of identifying at least one good trait in a student and weaves the students’ career. He has the knack to crack the toughest, quietest, weirdest, naughtiest, and academically weakest. Some tiny spark in a student would fill the teacher with a hope that these students are not incorrigible and they can be put on right path matching their skills. The lament of quality deterioration can be attributed to mushrooming of below par institutions. A great damage was already done in this aspect of quality of teaching and teachers. These sharp deteriorations must be viewed in the context of Right to Education conferred on all our children and Right to information to all our citizens. The bad practices that crept in to the system like unqualified teachers, untrained teachers, proxy teachers, abnormal fees, malpractices in exams, under payment to teachers, must be dispensed with to achieve the real purpose of education. Then only we can pay real tribute to Dr S Radhakrishnan. Despite being the second president, first vice president of India, Diplomat, Philosopher, Politician, Statesman, Educationist, he always preferred to be remembered as a teacher.
A few recollections of Dr S Radhakrishnan in this context are highly relevant and appropriate as he was a living example of a person hailing from humble origin rising to the level of first citizen of the country. Here is a person, having no direct participation in Freedom movement, being chosen to high profile positions- Indian Ambassador to Soviet Union, first Vice President of India Republic, and second President of our Country. Those were the days when such posts were given as a reward for a supreme and selfless sacrifices made by tallest leaders of National movement. With no background of Foreign Service, a teacher of eminence is being appointed as country’s ambassador to the biggest republic of the world, USSR, having its own political ideology different from our own headed by dogmatic and despotic dictator. He was never after positions. The positions came to him as an honor by virtue of his being a distinguished Teacher, which is a part of India’s tradition. His selection as First Vice President for two terms and second President of our country is not only an honor to the teaching community at large, but also a partial fulfillment of Plato’s concept of Philosopher king to which the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, had great fascination.
A philosopher, with metaphysical vision and foundation of great moral, human and spiritual values, is the fittest person to head the country. This was amply proved by the excellent way, he steered the proceedings of Rajya Sabha as its ex- officio Chairman for two terms wining applause from all quarters and three critical situations during his presidentship of the country - Indo-China war of 1962, the end of Nehru era due to the death of the then Prime Minister in 1964, a victorious performance against Pakistan in 1965. He was a child prodigy. Since childhood, he pursued his education with scholarships and awards. In partial fulfillment of MA degree at Madras Christian College, he wrote a thesis on the ethics of Vedanta. He was afraid that the thesis would offend his philosophy professor Dr A J Hogg. Instead Dr Hogg commended Radhakrishnan on doing an excellent job.
Born in a poor Brahmin family, his father Sarvepalli Veeraswami employed on a meager salary in the Zamindari found difficult to educate his son. In fact his father did not want him to learn English or go to school. Instead he wanted him to become a priest. However, the talents of the boy were so outstanding that his father finally decided to send him to school at Tiruttani itself. In the early years of his teaching life also Radhakrishnan was very poor. He ate his food on banana leaves and not in a plate, as he could not afford to buy one. Once it so happened that he did not have the money to buy even banana leaves so that day he carefully cleaned the floor, spread the food and ate it. His salary those days was only about Rs. 17/- per month. He had borrowed some money and could not pay even the interest on it. He had to auction his medals to meet his needs. He was a great educational administrator.
As Vice Chancellor of Andhra University for a full term of five years and later Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, he left indelible impressions on the administration of those universities. He was liked for his excellent teaching ability, amiability, and administrative acumen.
Dr Radhakrishnan was a great speaker and conversationist. Radhakrishnan was much thought provoking and scintillating in his conversations. His speeches were punctuated with humor. Once in a speech to an elite gathering he said: “Usman was my best friend in college. He was my senior, later became my classmate and then my junior. When I was a professor, he was the Vice chancellor. When I was Vice chancellor, Usman was my Chancellor”. The people heard this remark could easily understand the subtle reference to the brilliance and capabilities of some people occupying higher positions.
Dr Radhakrishnan got one eye operated in one of the famous hospitals in India. But, the operation was not fully successful hence, he thought of going to London for the operation of his second eye. Somebody asked him why he was going to London. He said: “Here I was made Sukracharya, if I get my second eye operated here, I fear, they may make me Dhrutharasthra”. Humorously he explained the bad conditions of our hospitals. The Indian doctors might have felt ashamed after hearing his words. Great people do not tell directly and in curt manner and they only delicately exhort.
Dr Radhakrishnan was known for his straight forwardness. He did not hesitate to call a spade a spade if the occasion demanded. On several occasions in his interactions with his British bosses, he had become the voice of Indian nationalism. Once Mahatma Gandhi remarked that even drinking cow’s milk should be construed as eating its flesh. Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan immediately retorted, “Then drinking mother’s milk should make men cannibolic”. People around laughed loudly. Gandhiji was taken a back. Thus timely retort was the characteristic nature of Radhakrishnan.
He believed that education and nationalism are inter-twined. Good and complete education would quicken not only the development of individual but is the only means to the creation of Indian solidarity and unity of national vision. He believed national integration could not be built by brick and mortar, by chisel and hammer but it has to grow silently in the minds and hearts of people.
He placed Indian philosophy on the world map. He was the bridge between East and the West. He introduced the thinking of western idealist philosophy into Indian thought. He mastered classics of Indian philosophy – Prasthanam trayam, namely the Upanishads, Bhavathgitha, Brahmasutras, commentaries of Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhava. He fully acquainted himself with Buddhist and Jain philosophy and philosophies of western thinkers such as Plato, Plotinus, Kant, Bradley etc. Equally at home with Kant Hegel, Shankaracharya and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, he was a citizen of the world. To the west, he seemed to be a typical western intellectual, while the East regarded him as a sage who symbolized the ancient wisdom of the orient.
Though he was not directly elected by the people he was a very good parliamentarian. During heated debates in Rajya Sabha, Radhakrishnan would intervene with Shlokas from Sanskrit classics, or quotations from Bible to calm the charged atmosphere. Nehru on seeing his tact commented later, “By the way in which Radhakrishnan conducted the proceedings of Rajya Sabha, he had made meetings of the house look like family gatherings.” As astute statesmen he guided each of the Prime Ministers wisely and saw India through those trying years safely. Though offered, Radhakrishnan refused to continue for another term as President after his term ended in 1967.
The appointment of Dr S Radhakrishnan as Ambassador Soviet Union raised many eyebrows because people wondered what kind of an impression Radhakrishnan, a student of Philosophy not familiar with sensitivities and proclivities of a diplomat, would make a Joseph Stalin, an ardent Communist. He succeeded Vijyalakshmi Pandit who was the Indian Ambassador in Russia for 18 months but could not get audience with Joseph Stalin. In 1950, Radhakrisnan was called to Kremlin to meet Stalin. During the meeting, Radhakrishnan, referring to Stalin’s in famous bloody purges said: “We had an Emperor in India, who after bloody victory renounced war and became a monk. You have also waded your way to power through force. Who knows what might happen to you also”. Stalin unperturbed by the remark smiled and replied “Yes, miracles do happen sometimes. I worked as a theological seminary for five years”. However, a few days before Radhakrishnan’s departure for India, Stalin called Radhakrishnan. Stalin’s face was highly bloated and he looked unwell. Radhakrishnan felt really sorry for the notorious Communist and patted him on the cheek and the back. Stalin was deeply moved by his gesture. He held Radhakrishnan’s hand and said “you are the first person to treat me as a human being not as a monster. You are leaving us and I am sad. I want you to live long. I have not long to live”. Stalin died six months later. Thus Radhakrishnan’s considerate gesture led to a relationship between India and Soviet Union which flourished for many years.
Though Radhakrishnan was conferred Knighthood by George V for his services in education, he did not use the title he wanted to be addressed by his academic title of Doctor. Being a teacher par excellence, he gave a masterpiece definition of a teacher “A good teacher must know how to arouse interest of the pupil in the field of study for which he is responsible. He must himself be a master in the field of study and be in touch with latest developments in the subject. He must himself be a fellow traveler in the exciting pursuit of knowledge. His remarkable qualities of teacher can be summarized with a small episode. Dr Radhakrishnan was a Professor in Mysore University.
In 1921, Dr Asuthosh Mukherjee Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University requested Radhakrishnan to work in that university. Dr Radhakrishnan was leaving Mysore to join Calcutta University. A horse carriage was waiting in front of his house in Mysore. Large number of teachers and students of Mysore University came to Radhakrishnan’s house to pay respects and give him a sendoff. The luggage was kept in the carriage by the students. Radhakrishnan came out of his house and some students lifted him on to their hands. Some more students released the horses from the carriage and put the yoke of the carriage on their necks. Dr Radhakrishnan was taken on their hands and placed on the carriage’s seat. He was wondering and asked what is all this. The students spiritedly replied that all this was an expression of gratitude to a teacher who gave knowledge. Students had drawn that carriage to Mysore Railway station. Once again at the station, they lifted Radhakrishnan and put him in the railway compartment. Onlookers on the road and at the station wondered at the unique way in which the students exhibited their respect towards their teacher.
Dr Radhakrishnan was honored with highest honor of the country Barata Ratna in 1954. Around the same time 880-page compilation titled the philosophy of Dr Radhakrishnan was released in America. Jawaharlal Nehru once said that it is peculiar privilege to have a great philosopher, educationalist and a great humanist as India’s President and this itself shows the kind of men, we honour and respect. His powerful mind his power of speech, his command over English language, his dedication and his mental alacrity were greatly acclaimed. He was truly a teacher and a leader who had the wisdom of a sage, detachment of a philosopher and maturity of a statesman. The books authored by him are the best testimony for his erudition and encyclopedic knowledge. Having reviewed the multi-faceted personality of Dr Radhakrishnan as a manifestation of a great teacher, let us all feel that there is an urgent need to rise the quality of teacher and teaching to provide life building, man making, character making and nation building education to our children.
