Teachers should be made more accountable: Dr. Vasundhara Padmanabhan, principal, K J Somaiya

Teachers should be made more accountable: Dr. Vasundhara Padmanabhan, principal, K J Somaiya

Shraddha KamdarUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 12:28 AM IST
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Dr. Vasundhara Padmanabhan, Principal, K. J. Somaiya Comprehensive College of Education, Training and Research, Vidyavihar, talks to Shraddha Kamdar on the finer aspects of pursuing a BEd and becoming a teacher

She is lively and jovial, and at the same time caring. The afternoon that I went up to her office to char with her, she promptly ordered my sandwich at lunch time, indicating that the only choice I had was among the food items on the canteen menu. That I had to eat was already established. It is heartening to know that such a person is a teacher educator, and nurturing similar qualities in many prospective teachers every year. In her inimitable way, she talked about the problems of the system and how to overcome them, and how the greatest satisfaction of a true teacher comes from the gratitude and success of the students. Dr. Vasundhara Padmanabhan, Principal, K. J. Somaiya Comprehensive College of Education, Training and Research, Vidyavihar, after having spent 12 years at the college, truly works with the vision that the group holds, and is at the helm of several best practices initiated in the college. She is a resource person for several workshops and seminars, besides being a doctoral guide to PhD students. Excerpts from an interview:

Even at the level of a professional course, are students really geared towards marks in the Bachelor of Education (BEd) programme?

You cannot help that the students are geared towards marks. They are conditioned from a young age for marks, since marks hold the key for everything else in future. And that’s why they are like that. Even in the BEd course we have students who are marks-oriented, but we also feel that the capabilities and competencies of the students in teacher education matter more. After all, my students are going to become teachers in future, and they should have that sensibility in them.

What other competencies and behavioural traits do you look for in a BEd candidate?

This person is going to become a teacher, so a certain kind of behaviour is expected from them. We hope they attend their classes, which shows dedication and punctuality and this was the case until a couple of years ago. Of late, students have been skipping classes, and although the university norm is 75%, a student misses a lot even is one day is missed. BEd is a professional course consisting of application of theory to practice. That’s why we insist students attend. Of course, that is a generalisation. There are a whole lot of students who is sincere beyond words and wants to gain as much as possible from the progamme. Not surprisingly, these are the ones who also score well.

Since BEd is a course about how to be a teacher, how do you check for, and consequently help with content (subject) knowledge of a candidate?

We receive applications from graduates as well as postgraduates, and usually, the content knowledge would be assumed, since it is the specialisation at that level. But even then, we hold a content test at the beginning of the programme and also hold refresher training courses for syllabuses from standards five to 10 and eight to 12 in different batches. Apart from that we call upon experts and teachers from our sister institutions in Somaiya Vidyavihar, who come in for subject matter interactions with our students and clear their doubts.

After all, content knowledge is important, and sometimes we do face these complaints from the industry when we receive feedback for our students. That’s why we are focused towards it.

How does the programme create the sensitivity and the nurturing attitude that is needed among teachers?

From the start of the course, our BEd students are part of several practical sessions including microteaching, which is teaching a small session to a small group for a very short span of time. They are also exposed to education technology, psychology, child growth development and other aspects, which captures and sustains their attention. But of course, so simulation can be a great substitution for the real time face-to-face interaction, where teachers learn how to think on their feet when faced with unique problems in their classrooms. In addition, students have regular reflection sessions with the teacher educators, where they can ask any question they want via anonymously written questions on chits of paper. In this way, they can feel free to ask anything, and teachers are bound to answer.

You talked about real time face-to-face interaction in the classroom with students. How do you BEd candidates get that exposure?

Well, they have to go for classroom teaching sessions, and they do plan and work hard for that. But those are stray lessons and sometimes our candidates do not do well with the criticism, since until then no one has ever criticised them. In fact, we ask our candidates to watch a few reality shows on television to observe constructive comments from the judges of these shows, since Indians are primarily focussed on criticism.

This year, for student experiences in real-time settings, we started something new. We have tied up with three principals across Mumbai to provide our students as resource persons to the school, where they work as assistants and learn the value of being a teacher by getting to teach a few classes, and then observing a few classes, besides working on other things in exchange for mentorship from the teachers and principals of the respective schools. Basically we just forwarded the concept of shadow teaching to an extended internship and that has worked quite well for our BEd candidates. Unfortunately, even though the system wants good teachers, not many schools come forward to host such resource BEd candidates, since they are often viewed as a ‘nuisance’. Here, the industry-academia connect needs to be stronger.

Does a BEd candidate get extrem-ely shocked or nervous when faced with a classroom full of children on the first instance of teaching?

It happens, but on rare occasions. This is because the shift in the classroom is a gradual one, as the BEd candidates have undergone many experiences and simulations before that. Also, many of our candidates have been coaching students at home, so they are not entirely new to the scenario. Sometimes, they are underprepared time-wise, and finish the lesson in say 20 minutes and then are blank on what to do with the rest of the time. A few of these get overwhelmed with the experience.

Do you feel teachers are underpaid in our country?

A person’s value is based on the amount he or she earns. So whether or not he or she needs the money, it is essential to pay according to the work. The teachers want to feel worthy. So in a way, yes, they are underpaid in comparison to several other professions. The disparity should not be too high. I feel that the payment should also be in proportion to talent and hard work.

That said, I also feel that teachers should be made more accountable. Every other professional in the country is made accountable including the domestic help, but not teachers – for the work they do. The permanency of the job sometimes makes a few of them complacent so this accountability will keep them in check.

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