BY MANOJ KUMAR KARNA

Modes of teaching from past to present The traditional mode of the “classroom” teaching is still the vein of Nepali universities’ teaching which has been coming from long past in the world. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and others have carried out this culture in the past when there were no pen and paper or the materials like laptops, projector and so on to be used in the cozy classes. In the Eastern part of the world, it was known as the Gurukul system where the much devoted students were seen sitting down to the seat of respected teacher (Guruji) listening to “lecture”. However, the scenario has got changed today in the sense that the students sit in the class under a teacher who still “delivers lecture” in the traditional mode of teaching. There are so many subjects like English, technical and advanced ones which demand the practical or group or demonstration and other forms of teachings. Along with the change in the scenario, unexpectedly, the average student and teachers are still seen in the vast disguised form of their prescribed job. In this light, the matter of morality comes head that whether the teacher/instructor will bring change in the behave or not. It is noticeable that there is no sharp change in the product after passing out the Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees in Nepal and our unskilled product competes with uneducated common citizen to go abroad for earning for blue-collar job. This is a matter of stigma for any dedicated teacher, student and the institution too. Many people blame on the course of study as not practical behind such result but I do believe that only the nature of course in the Tribhuvan University (TU) and other universities in Nepal is not the sole reason behind such bitter experience. Some disguised teacher and students in TU As I am in the duty of a teacher, I must begin from my own side. Though, I must not be fully capable to show all the activities as per demand of the course but I am never personally to be back morally. However, more than average teachers in my environment show the following characteristics which are not expected from a professional teacher. I would call them the disguised teacher and such students the disguised students. The disguised teacher is unpunctual and irregular in the class with no preparation. S/he is always late to appear in the class by five to ten minutes but always earlier to leave the class than the prescribed time. Even s(he) does not have own pen to do the attendance, no bag and book, and always leaves the duster in the class for s(he) is always in rush. Clearly, such teacher does not appear in any seminar, course of refreshment, orientation and so on. Such teacher dominates the younger teacher in the name of so called seniority but never sits together for as a whole sharing of ideas in the department for betterment of own self and for the student. It is irony and interesting that such person will demand only certain paper every year to teach and will never allow any colleague to sit even by chance. S/he will fight violently in the meeting of the department if someone proposes the teacher’s evaluation to be done by the students under certain question anonymously answered by them. S/he begins the chapter whatever remembers which is long time ago. Such person neither respects the department authority nor follows the verdicts of the dean’s office. S(he) will never write any journal article or book for career upliftment. When such teacher’s article is edited, s/he will vanish to get comment from the editorial board but will exert immense pressure from the financial or campus chief or any leader for article’s publishing. I have heard that there are many teachers who will use the other’s already written book for their promotion by hiring the certain copies of books with new name and cover for the interview period! Such teacher is dominant at workplace because of lack of sincerity, teaching mentality but with the full back support of the political figures. Even the students are not an inch less and such average students fix everything for rest students and teachers separately. Such average students are mostly unpunctual, irregular and appear without essential tools. The teacher will indicate to note down but they will stare on the teacher without doing job in lack of pen, notebook and book. They appear as a parliamentarian, that is, only for listening purpose. But when there is any political activity by any group, they will seem to be hyper active. Such students will not bear if a teacher remarks or shouts at him/her for their behave and, sadly, they will disappear from next day. These students will make phone call by leaders to have full internal marks on totally plagiarized materials. They will not like to submit their draft or final writing own-self to the teacher. The campus administration feels pressurized by such students while distributing scholarship or during result of any entrance exam. Conclusion Teachers and students must be professional and ethical to appear in the class with their proper tools and preparation. Personal problem of the student should not hind the teacher for regularity and punctuality. Students must think that this is an age of competition globally so the institution will upgrade the course as per the time but they must do all the activities in many upgraded subjects. The institution should provide new texts in the library abundantly and the scholarship should be distributed transparently as well as fairly to the financially poor, devoted and good achieving students. At the same time, a teacher must try to adopt new suitable method of teaching so that the student will learn to fight competition in the open market fearlessly. For this, the teacher must be a highly moral in the course preparation before entering the class and must involve own-self in the regular article writing and reading activities. Of course, teachers and students should get ideas from the internet sources as prompt but they must avoid plagiarism and try to be creative. I do recommend university authorities to check the number of students’ portfolio as classroom performance of the teachers while promoting so that the laborious and honest teacher will be rewarded. Surely, the candidate who believes in politics during teaching and produces the plagiarized material during promotion should be black listed. As a whole, the government invests much part of the budget in the education sector so the product of the universities must be of selling type. For this the periodic change of study material in the interval of five years is a must to follow the global pattern. The government can suspend the Students’ Union election for some period (not for ever) or can shift the location of campuses at mountain cliff or anywhere far from the city probably nearby army/police base camp to disconnect the students with political parties and also to stop them doing anti-social activities for unfair demands like more marks without work or threatening the teacher and so on. I think the unexpected mingling of town’s goondas in the student politics will be controlled too.

(The writer is the lecturer at Patan Multiple Campus, Lalitpur, TU)