During my visits to elementary schools across Karnataka, in my various capacities, I used to ask school children quite a standard question: ‘What would you like to become, when you grow up?’ The children would give me various types of answers – doctor, engineer, pilot, etc. But in cases, where the children said that they would like to become a teacher, it would come as a pleasant surprise to me. It told me many things about the school itself –
12 School education in India is in the process of transformation. There are efforts to tackle the most glaring problems of our national system of education: by bringing in renewed approaches such as empowering teachers not only in teaching but also in administrative decision making, providing students with opportunities to engage in self-directed and reflective activities; and by establishing connections between school and society.
Are certain individuals born to be teachers and can only those be truly competent? Or can people without such aspirations develop to become ‘great teachers’? Are there certain conditions, the presence of which foster such development?