Dear Readers,

In this interview series where we ask few questions to people who are making a difference, it can be big, it can be small it doesn’t matter what matters is their contribution to our society. It can be anyone from any walks of life and from any country. Please, do send us suggestions of people whom you think we should interview for this series.

Anuradha S. Bannore is a prolific writer and an alumni of Jabalpur University with M.A in English. She retired as a teacher and currently lives in Vadodara India. Following are her thoughts on some of the questions we asked her.

1. Tell us something about yourself?

I was born and brought up in Jabalpur (M.P) in a very loving and adorable joint family. In those days disciplined life was considered to be an integral part of one’s existence hence all of us were taught to be thoughtful, considerate, caring and well mannered as well as to love, respect and honour each other. Each one of us assembled for the evening prayers and Aarti- it was a must for all of us to do so. I had a wonderful childhood. We used to play outdoors which seems to have disappeared these days probably because of cell phones, TV, video games etc. I had my education in Jabalpur.

Reading, cooking and baking new dishes, photography, going for walks where there’s ample greenery are some of my hobbies. I’ve always enjoyed writing short stories & poems both in Hindi as well as English right from my school days. I love gardening and listening music. I inherited this from my Father (who loved both gardening as well as music).

I was a teacher and enjoyed my work immensely though at times it demanded too much time which would be difficult, I guess for any married lady with a small child. Though quite challenging it was enjoyable too.

Whatever I’ve achieved today is all because of my dear parents and I’m very grateful to them especially to my dearest Ma for teaching and preparing me to be well cultured and understand the significance of values in one’s daily life. All my brothers and sisters, cousins, teachers, friends, colleagues, my husband and my children have played a great role in my life. I’m very grateful to all of them for being a part of my life.

2. What is the meaning of being a teacher in your opinion?

Each one of us gets educated in two schools –The formal and the informal schools. Formal is the regular school while the informal is our life where we learn through our and others’ experiences, from our parents, the other members of our family, friends, even strangers we meet and so on. Each and every moment either we are learning or someone else is learning from us. So we see that teaching cannot be segregated from learning. You can’t say this is only ‘teaching’ and that is only ‘learning’. Both are integral parts of each other. If you try to separate them the very essence of education, in my opinion, is lost because I believe if one says ‘I’m a teacher so my job is to teach say for example the students and how can they, being young teach me anything?’ that’s the biggest mistake we make and we will definitely completely fail as a teacher. We have to accept the fact that each and every living being is a teacher and we can learn a lot from them and vice versa but only if we are receptive about it. Even a small child can teach us a number of things. It depends on one’s perception about the whole thing and that’s what counts here. Adults have to do away with this belief that they alone can teach & be right while youngsters can’t. So teaching – learning is a process that goes hand in hand. In fact a teacher who is very rigid and not ready to learn / accept the students’ views fails in her/his profession because students’ voice sharpens the teacher’s thinking and skills for it often comes as a challenge and helps in becoming a better teacher. I don’t say one has to accept everything that they say but we can filter and accept using our sense of discretion and try to convince the students too towards positive thinking.

3. What is your most memorable experience as a teacher?

 I was very often told that I was wasting my talents in sticking around in the school where I taught because most of our students came from the weaker section of society and weren’t really interested in studying but I stuck around taking it as a challenge and I’m glad I did so. I feel helping such students is more paying though at times distressing too than students with high percentage of marks. I’ve had many great moments in my career as a high school teacher but one that took me up as a surprise was when some of my students and their parents who had not been too happy with me because I was known to be a very strict teacher (where studies, assignments– were concerned) came to thank me for teaching English to them/ward so well that they scored good marks in their board exams. Another parent approached me saying, ‘Madam, my elder son scored well in English because of you and my younger one is at present in Class V and I’d like you to teach him too, so please don’t retire before that.’ This was my greatest achievement or reward whatever you might like to call it. Though I did get best teachers’ award but this one far surpassed it. I am extremely thankful to everyone who made it possible for me especially my students who were the greatest challenge to me because (except for a few of them) their English was quite poor and therefore they hated it. I’m happy I was able to instill an interest for it in some of them at least.

4. What would you want to change in education system these days?

What I strongly feel is that the reservation policy should be abolished. It was meant to be for just 10 years but unfortunately it continues till today. Why I’m saying so is not because I have anything against those people but because of helping a particular class of people the deserved ones are getting bypassed. Yes give them free education that’s perfectly okay but giving jobs on the basis of the policy is a little too much. If teachers are selected on the basis of merit and caliber education in India can improve by leaps and bounds.

I’ve interviewed some candidates for teachers for English and found they can barely speak a grammatically correct sentence yet you are forced to hire them instead of the deserved ones because of the reservation policy. This has been the experience in other subjects too. If the foundation itself is weak then how can we hope to build a safe and sound structure on it? Everything is lost and it crumbles down even before the actual work has started. Another factor is that course books are usually selected not by subject teachers but by publishers and some higher authorities. I feel a body of selected teachers should also be included (if they aren’t already) for this purpose along with the others.

Teaching especially in the lower classes should not be just reading and writing but through various activities like drawing, craft, singing, enacting, pictures etc. Exams mean mugging and vomiting it out on answer sheets with or without understanding. This is a very big stumbling block in our education system. The method of taking exams needs to be changed. There’s a need to let a child choose subjects of his/her liking for example a child might be interested in Geography and Botany or Music but such options aren’t there in our system so he/she has to either opt for Science or Arts and unfortunately has to study subjects he/she isn’t interested in. That’s why in mugging they have found an easy option.

Where teaching of languages is concerned interesting short stories, plays, articles on different subjects such as science, adventure, marine life etc should be included along with short interesting poems. In language classes students can be given different pictures and asked to make up a story on it or say something that they see or feel looking at that picture or even write an essay or enact it. This will help them overcome their shyness and be able to face audience and gradually develop the skill of public speaking. I have tried this in some of my classes and found that it definitely helps the students though in the beginning they are reluctant because of language problem. The art of writing seems to have disappeared and needs to be revived. It has a personal touch as compared to typing. Lastly politics should be kept miles away from education.

5. Your message for our readers? 

I would like to say something especially to the parents that they should have more respect for the teachers than they have at present. This is also the reason why some students nowadays show hardly any respect towards their teachers. At the same time teachers too should earn respect through their honest and sincere work. What is surprising is that such a noble profession as teaching is looked down upon in our society! It’s weird because a teacher does a great task of teaching so many children together whereas some parents can’t manage even one child. We must remember that though the parents prepare their children for the future but it’s the teachers too who play a very significant role in doing so. Another thing I’d like to add is Parents kindly don’t force your decision upon your child just because you couldn’t join a particular line of education you wanted to, doesn’t mean your child should go for it. It’ll lead to a vicious circle where, in every generation this will be followed. Another thing is please don’t give too much importance to tuition/coaching classes where you pay very high fees and you don’t dare to raise your voice for fear of your child being dismissed from the institution so you keep your anger under control to vent it out at school and college teachers. If your ward scores 80-90 percent of marks in tuition classes you argue with teachers how is it possible that they score low marks in schools/colleges? That’s really true because an intelligent child can’t get just passing marks or fail so you have to talk it out with the tuition class teachers and your ward too before playing the blaming game and get to the bottom of this issue. On what basis do you, dear parents think that only tuition class teachers are doing their work sincerely and not school/ college teachers? Since you consider tuition/coaching classes as temples of education it seems that all the schools and colleges should be completely shut down so that your wards can get a better education in the tuition/coaching classes and you can decide once for all what is better for your child.

Let us all learn to respect and honour each and every profession ie have dignity of labour. We must remember life is a boomerang—whatever we do it boomerangs on us one day. We must stand up for the right and not wrong even if it involves our kith and kin.