Vandana Aggarwal
Balance is very important in life. Whether it is work-life balance or balancing ourselves on one foot. Balancing two equations in chemistry or balancing numbers in math, eating a balanced diet, or maintaining balance in the environment. So let’s take a closer look at balance and see what are the different things we can learn about it.
Nabanita Deshmukh
The Lohit Youth Library Network has completed 10 successful years of spreading the joy of reading. With its 13 libraries spread across Arunachal Pradesh, the Network of youth voluteers guided by their ‘guru’, Satyanarayan Mundayoor, has managed to inspire a reading movement in the valley.
Risha Borooah
Nestled amidst the beautiful hills of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh is Jhamtse Ghatsal, a school for orphans, abandoned children, and children of single parents. Here children learn apart from their academic subjects, the language of love and compassion.
Aditi Mathur and Ratnesh Mathur
In the form of a letter to teachers, the authors ask you searching questions that lead you to rethink the “idea” of a teacher.
Suma Vivekanandan
Since math is an abstract subject, grasping it becomses easy for children if the subject is introduced to them through games. Here are a few simple games that you can get your students to play to understand LCM, multiplication, fractions, and number properties.
Pooja Keshavan Singh
At its basic level mathematics is necessary for every individual, but beyond that one doesn’t need mathematics for survival. Why then have we elevated the subject to such importance that our children actually feel suffocated? Let us not create frustrated and angry students who hate mathematics. Let us give them the space to understand and love the world of numbers.
Every teacher knows what their responsibilities are. But, do they know what rights they have? In case those rights are infringed where they can go? In the absence of associations to take up their cases, proper guidelines, and redressal mechanisms most teachers, especially in the private education sector, are left to try and solve their problems themselves.
Ardra Balachandran
Gone are the days when teachers were revered in society and teaching considered a sacred profession. Today teachers are a harassed lot. While expectations from teachers are huge, most of them are shorn off even their basic rights. Salaries are delayed, they are overworked, are abused by parents and school managements. If we expect our teachers to do their jobs perfectly then let us create an environment in which they are taken care of. Let us put in place proper grievance redressal systems so that no teacher is denied justice.
Sushama Yermal The education sector is the main creator/developer of human resources in the society. Ironically, the idea of managing human resources as well as human relations, as prevalent in the corporate sector, is surprisingly entirely absent from academia in India! Having been used to this situation, people have developed a mentality of simply bearing with the troubles and moving on, because in their experience, there is no reasonable forum where their complaints are heard, and the chances of getting timely help are even more remote. At present, teacher grievances are addressed to some extent by tribunals, officers in the departments of education and courts of justice. Clearly, a dedicated forum for this purpose needs to be established at the appropriate scale. The profession of teaching involves a number of responsibilities in addition to classroom interactions with students. Teachers are held accountable for student scores, student behaviour, school reputation, involvement of local public in school activities, maintaining school documents in addition to student data, interacting meaningfully with parents, providing information requested by officials in the department of education, ensuring that all students get their due share of participation in co-curricular events and competitions, counselling students on various issues – not the least on career choice and so on. Due to the nature of human interaction involved in each of these activities, teachers often face conflicts that are hard to resolve by mutual agreement. Also, a teacher’s job is not always given its due in terms of professional autonomy, security, adequate pay scales, appropriate working conditions, facilities in terms of leave, leisure or retirement benefits, to name a few. When an individual teacher or a group of teachers feel that they are treated unfairly or are not given their rightful dues as promised by the employer, they need to address these grievances to the competent authority to settle the dispute justifiably. This article looks at the avenues available for such redressal of teacher grievances in India. The basic working/earning rights of all citizens of the country are readily available to teachers. As workers in a public service, most of the labour laws also apply to the education sector of employment. A handy list of these rights can be found in the article “Teachers and the law” published in Teacher Plus, February 2009. Though we hear about and see many problems faced by teachers, usually no strong teacher unions come forward to fight for their rights, unlike the worker organizations in other sectors. The absence of a
In the context of the murder of a child in a prominent school, it is important that schools and teachers reflect more on their attitudes, practices and beliefs. Schools need to train and sensitize the support staff too because they are an important part of the care circle for children.
Empowering educators with innovative resources and community support. Stay connected with us for the latest in educational content. Follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter for updates.
Copyright © 2024 Teacher Plus- All rights reserved
Designed & Developed by GA Digital Solutions
