So who is Accountable, the teacher or the parent ?
Today we hear so much “blah blah” about accountability and corporate governance in India. We hear so much about accountability or lack of it in our public services & utilities.
Oh how we love to talk about it so lets talk about ‘accountability’ and lets see how accountable we hold ourselves towards something that is closer to home…”our children”
When a child does well in school, all love to take responsibility and credit for it , the parents, the teachers …… oh how proud we all are. (we should be !!)
Ok, now lets change the equation a little bit…’the child does not do well in school’, ‘ the child is having trouble coping with school’, ‘ the child is getting in trouble in school’……………. what are the conventional reasons you will generally hear ?
If you ask the parents… it would possibly be
“Oh the teacher is horrible”, “there is so much work to do”, “they just keeping having tests”, “they don’t correct the work or bother to do anything for the child” & so on.
If you ask the teacher… it would possibly be
“the child is not up to the mark”, “the parents don’t bother & expect us to do everything”. “there are so many children, I cant take care of everyone”, “we don’t control the syllabus and have to complete it in time”, ” how much more do you expect us to” & so on
I am not disputing the above reasons given my both us parents and the teachers, I am just stating them, I am no judge as to whether they are wrong or right.
So let me get this straight , if the child is facing trouble in school both the parents and teachers seem to have perfectly good reasons for it and they themselves never seem to be part of it in most cases…….. so my question is who takes final responsibility for it, who takes final responsibility to set it right……..the child ? Are we seriously expecting the child to set it right ? Is there no one else who should be held accountable ? (oops I used the word accountable ..!!)
Reasons, excuses, you can call it what you like, but the child is in trouble, you have brought up this child, you have educated this child, shouldn’t we as parents & teachers hold oursleves accountable for that child ?
I was under the impression that when we decided to have a child , it was one of our obligations to be accountable for the child’s well being in heart , mind and soul . !!
I was under the impression that when one chooses the vocation of a teacher, it is one’s obligation to be accountable for the child’s welfare in heart , mind and soul while in school !!
Parents & Teachers together are responsbile for the child. Accountability does not mean blaming someone else and then leaving it…..
We talk about accountability in governance of the country but are we holding ourselves accountable as parents and teachers ? Perhaps lets start from there first before pointing our fingers at others.
Author : Zarir Karbhari
Just! – “Autobiography of just another average soul.” – Excerpts