Quest for a therapeutic anodyne for the degenerating teacher-student relationship in new India

Abstract

The Teacher-Student relationship in India was a much revered one in ancient times. Today, one can notice a drastic change that has crept into this relationship. Crucial factors have effected this change. The chapter aims to discuss major crises on a research orientation to bring about positive amendments to keep India secure from the onslaught of social anomalies. School plays a vital role in moulding the personality of a child and this, in turn, is calibrated with individual Teacher-Student relationships, with merits as well as deficiencies, though the latter has a large impact on the child's psyche. In contemporary India, the factors that debauch Teacher-Student relationships are as follows: (a) Teacher-training and education programmes merely develop on the remains of an outmoded teacher-training system that hardly delves into the psychic and social problems of the new Indian Teacher-Student relationship; (b) The teaching profession is dominated by women who multitask, with no social support system as in the West. Here, women manage both the domestic and professional fronts in the perpetuation of a patriarchal system. Expectations of women's contributions to the conduct of a family are the same as before; this leads to students being at the receiving end of the frustrations of the teacher; (c) Teaching as a profession is often a mere lucrative choice, rather than one of passion; (d) Periodical, professional counselling for teachers and students, that orients and refreshes them to face challenges, animosities, hostilities, and exploitations is yet another grave gap; (e) Failure of teachers to recognize, appreciate and encourage talents; (f) Failure to identify and address behavioural issues in students while considering each individual student's familial background; (g) Inflation in student intake that fractures inter-personal relationships; (h) students with attention deficit; (i) Rise of prejudice, unscrupulousness, and impatience among teachers; (j) Teacher awards and legalized 'teacher-gift' systems in schools (often in private institutions) endanger the personality-moulding of students, which is part of teaching, and encourage a score-oriented teaching system; (k) commercialization of the education system sanctions the growth of innumerable private schools run by untrained, unskilled, profit-oriented businessmen with clandestine political backing; and (l) philistinism and degeneration of moral values caused by easy Internet accessibility in India. The article intends to analyze each of these, punctuated with suggestions that would attempt to contribute a social panacea.