Education is crucial for developing human resources and societies. It transmits cultural heritage while preparing people for the future. Education opens opportunities and enables people to respond constructively to changing situations. Teachers play a vital role in shaping students and societies by imparting knowledge, skills, values, and discipline. In ancient India, teachers were seen as holy figures who imparted both secular and spiritual wisdom. Reflection on curriculum allows improvement.

1. Education and its Importance
N.Ramakrishnan
Principal
Government college of Education for Women, Coimbatore

3. Education and its Importance
• History has established beyond doubt the
crucial role played by human resources in the
development of nations, and the development
human resources is the main function of
education.
• Education is one of the fundamental needs of
human beings. In the history of mankind,
education has formed a continuum and a
basis for the development of human society.

4. • Though development of attitudes, values and
capabilities both of knowledge and skills,
education provides strength and enables
persons to respond to changing situation and
enables them to cause and contribute to
societal development.
• Education has the dual function of transmitting
to the new generation the heritage of the part
with its accumulated wisdom and preparing it
for the present and the future that the emergent
needs of society and individual hold before us.

5. • At the same time, a fully satisfying life has
many other facts – intellectual, physical,
vocational, social, aesthetic, spiritual –
that have to be taken into account.
• Education as a basic human need opens up
unlimited possibilities calling for
responses that are constructive, creative
and challenging.

6. • Since independence UEE (Universalisation of
elementary education , has been long accepted
as a pre-condition to socio-economic and
political development of any society.) has been
an important and basic goal of educational
development in India.
• There is an urgent need to measure
performance essentially on the basis of
enrolment retention; girls and children of poor
and illiterate families need special remedial
programmes.

7. • In this direction concerted efforts have been
made to provide free and compulsory
education to all children up to the age of 14
which is a directive principle of the Indian
Constitution under Article 45.
• Education is the indispensable instrument
for the propagation of science and
technology which is fundamental to the
success of developing countries current
endeavors.

8. EXPERT VIEWS ON EDUCATION
• Education has been widely discussed and
interpreted by different thinkers, philosophers
and educationists with reference to its aims,
functions and implementations.
• It is complex idea. Hence, divergent options
and views have been expressed by the Indian
as well as the western thinkers about education
in different ages with reference to their
philosophies, needs and temper of the social
order.

9. Indian Concept of Education
• According to Upanishads, hindu vedha
• “Education is that whose and product is
salvation”.
• Salvation (Latin salvatio; Greek sōtēria; He
brew yeshu'ah[) is being saved or protected
from harm[1] or being saved or delivered
from some dire situation.
• In religion, salvation is stated as the saving
of the soul from sin and its consequences.

10. • According to Swami Vivekananda,
• Education means “The manifestation of
divine perfection already existing in man”.
• Aurobindo considered education as “Helping
the growing soul to draw out that is in it”.
• Mahatma Gandhi,
• the champion of basic education thinks of
education, as a means to developed man.
• He says, “By education, I mean an all-round
drawing out of the best in child and man
body, mind and spirit”.

11. • According to the report of Indian
Education Commission (1964-66),
• “Education ought to be related to
the life, needs and aspirations of
the people; and thereby made
powerful instrument of social,
economic and cultural
transformation”.

12. TEACHER
• PLACE OF THE TEACHER
• “Teachers are the real architects of the
nation”.
• The greatness of a country does not
depend on lofty buildings, gigantic
projects and large armies. The ultimate
test of a nations greatness is the qualify of
her citizens.

13. • If a nation possesses men of sterling
character and unimpeachable patriotism,
she is bound to make rapid progress on
all fronts.
• Young men are entrusted to the care of
the teaching profession and it is,
therefore, the duty of the teacher to
impart the right type of education to
students in order to make them right type
of citizens.

14. • Teachers can play a vital role in shaping the
future of India by paying attention to the
young men entrusted to their care”.
• The importance of a teacher is as the
presence of the sun.
• Since Vedic periods, teachers have played an
important role in the society.
• Society has these teachers the highest respect
because they were committed to bringing
about the comprehensive and harmonious
development of the student personality.

15. • Even during the Buddhist and Jain
periods, teacher occupied a very respect
place in society.
• Teaching is essentially a spiritual process
involving the contact of mind with mind.
• A good teacher is a powerful and abiding
influence in the formation of character.

16. • The influence of a teacher indirectly
extends over many generations; it
transcends national and geographical
boundaries, and it advances the cause of
civilization and world order.
• The world today is rapidly changing and
so in India, new goals are being set up
and new techniques are being devised in
order to achieve readjustment of society
to new situations.

17. • Teachers are expected not only to keep up
with the changes initiated in society but
to keep up also with the changes that are
being made continuously in the
techniques of education.
• Hence, there is great need for teachers to
possess a broad, deep and through
understanding of life. In short as is the
teacher, so is the school; the school is,
what the teacher makes it.

18. • The place and importance of the teacher in
society need not be overemphasized. He
imbibes, interprets and disseminates the
culture and traditions of the past.
• He plays a vital role not only as an interpreter
of culture and dispenser of knowledge but also
acts a builder of attitudes, values and beliefs.
• The young boys and girls in modern India
look to the teacher for interpretation of culture
and traditions and also for values, ideas,
beliefs, discipline, wit, fact, resourcefulness
and above all a way of life.

19. • The role of teacher in forming loyalties, values
and attitudes which are a necessary part of the
development of a national, social and cultural
entity is being increasingly realized.
• Evans (1971) has rightly said “the importance
of teacher seems to derive from two aspects of
his role:
• (a) as a conveyor of a message and
• (b) as a model whose attitudes, feelings and
values are consciously transmitted to the
pupils”.

20. • Teachers occupy a place of paramount
importance in any system of education. No
other aspect of education is so vital for its
progress as the teachers.
• They are the pivot of the educational system.
• The whole system of education revolves
around them. It is they who have to select and
interpret the curriculum and aids of
instruction.
• They have to influence our boys and girls by
their conduct and behavior.

21. • Dr. Radhakrishnan has aptly remarked,
“The teachers place in society is of vital
importance. He acts as the point for the
transmission of intellectual tradition and
technical skills from generations to
generations and helps to keep the lamp of
civilization burning”.
• But only those teachers who are well
trained can play a vital part in education
as well as in society.

22. • The secondary Education Commission
has rightly stated: “We are however,
convinc2ed that the most important factor
in the contemplated educational
reconstruction is the teacher, his personal
qualities, his educational qualifications,
his professional teaching and the place
that he occupies in the school as well as
in the community”.

23. TEACHERS AS HOLY PERSONS AND TEACHING AS A
HOLY DUTY
• Dr. Veda Mitra (1964) has observed in
education, “In ancient India teaching was
considered to be a holy duty when a
Brahmana was bound to discharge
irrespective of the consideration of the
fee.
• The teacher succeeded in creating an
image of being a very useful member of
society.

24. • Teachers were expected to devote their
lives to the course of teaching in the
missionary spirit of self sacrifice, and the
society laid down the principle that both
the public and the state would help the
learned teacher, and educational
institutions very liberally”.
• He taught both secular as well as
religious arts and sciences.

25. • The relationship between the teacher and his
pupils were regarded as filial in character.
• The teacher was regarded as the spiritual and
intellectual father of his students.
• It was the function of the teacher to lead the
students from the darkness of ignorance to the
light of knowledge.
• “The lamp of learning was concealed under a
cover and the teacher removed it and let out
the light”.

26. TYPES OF TEACHERS
We find three kinds of teachers in ancient India
namely
1. Upadhyaya
2. Acharya
3. Guru
• An “Upadhyaya” was one he who taught only a
portion of the Vedas.
• An “Acharya” taught the Vedas after having
performed only the ceremony of Upanayana. An
Acharya was ten times more than the “Upadhyaya”.

27. INSTRUCTION
• Instead of just lecturing in the classroom, teachers
are facilitators of learning, providing students with
the information and tools they need to master a
subject.
• At times, teachers act like tutors, working with
small groups of students or individual students
within the classroom or after class.
• Teachers also play the role of evaluators, constantly
assessing students' abilities through formal and
informal assessments, providing suggestions for
improvement and assigning grades.

28. STUDENT INTERACTION
• Perhaps the most important roles teachers fill involve
interacting with students.
• Teachers must be leaders in the classroom and in the
school, earning the respect of students and setting a
positive example.
• They must be disciplinarians, doling out fair and
consistent punishments to students who break the rules.
• At the same time, teachers must show care and concern
for students.
• A teacher has the power to build up or tear down a
student's self-esteem and make a student's day or ruin it
in an instant.

29. • At the same time, teachers must show care
and concern for students.
• A teacher has the power to build up or tear
down a student's self-esteem and make a
student's day or ruin it in an instant.
• When interacting with students, a teacher
must fill the role of a counselor, a surrogate
parent, a nutritionist and someone who has
the best interests of every child at heart.

30. CREATION
• Because teachers must use the curriculum,
they should have input in its creation.
• A teacher can gauge whether an activity will
fit into a specified time frame and whether
it will engage students.
• If multiple teachers will use the curriculum,
allow as many of them as possible to
provide input during the creation stage.

31. • As teachers provide input, they will
gain ownership in the final product
and feel more confident that the
curriculum was created with their
concerns and the needs of their
particular students in mind.

32. IMPLEMENTATION
• Teachers must implement the curriculum in
their own classrooms, sticking to the plan
that has taken so much time, careful
planning and effort to create.
• When a teacher fails to properly implement
a strong curriculum, she risks not covering
standards or failing to implement effective
practices in the classroom.

33. • That does not mean a teacher cannot
make minor changes. In fact, a strong
curriculum is designed to allow a teacher
to be flexible and to insert a few
personalized components or choose from
among a selection of activities.

34. SOCIETY
• A society is a group of people involved in
persistent social interaction, or a large social
grouping sharing the same geographical or social
territory, typically subject to the same political
authority and dominant cultural expectations.
• Societies are characterized by patterns of
relationships (social relations) between individuals
who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a
given society may be described as the sum total of
such relationships among its constituent members. In
the social sciences, a larger society often
evincesstratification or dominance patterns in
subgroups.

35. • Information society: A society in which
information is a good that one can exchange, buy,
sell, store, transport, process. The society of the
digital divide.
• Knowledge society: A human society, in which
knowledge should bring justice, solidarity,
democracy, peace... A society in which knowledge
could be a force for changing society. A society
which should provide universal and equitable
access to information (UNESCO).
• The Knowledge Society needs new kinds of
Knowledge, that cannot reduce to traditional
disciplines

36. REFLECTION
• Reflecting on a curriculum allows teachers and
others involved in the process to find any
weaknesses in the curriculum and attempt to
make it better.
• Teachers reflect on curriculum in multiple ways,
such as keeping a journal as they implement the
curriculum, giving student’s surveys and
reviewing the results or analyzing assessment data
and individual student performance.
• Not only can reflection serve to improve a
specific curriculum, it may guide the creation of
new curriculum.