The document discusses the lack of respect given to teachers in society and within the education system. It provides several examples of teachers being looked down upon or disrespected by police officers, education officials, family members, and the general public. Even though teachers can attain high ranks and pay scales, they are still perceived as lowly by others. The document argues that more needs to be done to improve pre-service and in-service training for teachers, and to give them the respect they deserve in order to improve the education system.

1. A TEACHER’S SPATE
Lecturer Muhammad Hussain
Deputy District Education Officer (Colleges)
Ravi and Shalimar Town, Lahore.
The status of a teacher even once s/he is placed as a gazetted officer in the
Basic Pay Scale-17 and above, is considered to be quite humble and at times
depicts lowly in exertion of its powers, as if awarded to the officers of the
Education Department is merely for the purposes of pay, pension and allowance
purposes. To quote an instance once at an Evening Academy where a colleague
of mine used to teach to earn an extra buck to make his two ends meet narrated
the following story depicting the pathetic state of affairs teachers are faced with
from time to time. Some students got involved in a scuffle and due to the usage
of fire crackers a commotion took place that attracted the local police patrol
headed by a Station House Officer (SHO) of the near by Police Station.
The Police Patrol met the administrator and demanded to arrest the rowdy
students involved in the fight. The administrator tried to pacify the situation
assuring the Police Patrol over a cop of tea. The police personnel were adamant
to take the culprits over to the Police Station. The Administrator tried to negotiate
with the police party and in order to impress the SHO, he said that the Class
Teacher is a Grade-17 officer of the Education Department. The SHO who was a
Grade-7 officer of the Police Department took it as an insult and he ensured that
the teacher too is arrested and whisked away along with the accused students.
The Administrator’s ploy, back fired badly. Once the investigation was over and
the students along with their teacher were hand back to the Administrator, a
police personal was over heard making a derogatory remark, “Scale-7 officer of
the Police Department is a heavy weight compared to a Scale-17 teacher of the
Education Department.”
Quoting another incident that took place while I once visited the Secretariat of
Education, I entered the office of a Deputy Director there. The officer at once
sent for the peon. The moment the peon came over the officer abusively scolded
him as to how was I allowed access to his office. To add insult to injury I felt very
small and humiliated, so the discrimination within the department is quite obvious
and even the departmental officers and officials in their air of superiority they too
look down upon the teachers’. It is common perceptions that our religious
teachers’ (Mullas’), are those people who fail to achieve a reasonable job thus
join in into the ranks of the clergy. Likewise the lowly scum’s of the earth take up
the profession of teaching as School teachers.
Once it so happened that I came a rich relative of mine at one of the marriage
ceremonies of the family. After the pleasantries, he enquired of me if I was still
teaching pupils’ or doing a job. So with that we can imagine the worth and
perception of a teacher.

2. One of my uncle’s is not on talking terms with me ever since I got enrolled as a
school teacher for his preference being a patwaree, girdawar or a tehsildar were
much more, of course in terms of nuisance value and authority invested in them
as part of the revenue department in the executive.
I remember an acquaintance of mine with a Master’s degree to his credit joined
as a teacher in a school run by a Non Government Organization (NGO). He used
to lament about the meager salary he was drawing. I countered him with a retort.
I suggested him to quit and get into a job of his liking. To which he replied that he
could not quit his job due to the prevalent state of joblessness in the country. He
opined not to jump on to the band wagon of the unemployed, even though that
he was drawing a salary less than half that was being drawn by matriculate /
intermediate qualified drivers of that very NGO.
Now that I am a Deputy Director in the Education Department’s administration
the perspective seems changed because of my designation and officer status, I
distinctively remember that even my own class fellows who had successful in
entering the Central Superior Services (CSP) Cadre would ignore me since I was
employed as a school teacher. They would meet me only if they had to, but now I
can feel the difference in their attitude … even though my emoluments, grade
etc., is still the same. However the designation and holding an administrative
office and placement has made all the difference. I have after all metamorphosed
from a teacher to an officer.
I have an observation that the public sector teachers’ hardly have doctors’ and
engineers as their spouses and it true especially so for the male teachers’ so to
say. Moreover generally in the society the teachers’ even if they earn a lot of
money are not given the amount of respect that is rendered to even an
unemployed doctor. Tuitions due to the extra earnings and access of the teacher
to the well to do parents of the students may be in terms of money, business or
their appointment make them charming and desirable and attractive but at what
and whose expense? The vested interest of the teachers’ can be seen through
on one side and they probably close their eye to the though obviously a
derogatory reputation that teachers’ do not teach well during the school hours but
put in a lot of effort while they are at tutoring. The other side is the parents and
the pupils, who are these days unfortunately considered clients and consumers
respectively. The parents’ are the investors who want to reap profits and the
students too are may be NOT interested in learning in terms of value and
knowledge but they want the fruits of the looms and labor in the shape of Letter
Grades, Grade Point Averages (GPA) and higher percentages appended with
either jobs, admissions and scholarships and the key objectives of learning and
the goal(s) of knowledge become(s) subservient. Vested interests are supreme in
our society and being an administrator to have a self driven and a notorious
value system by default. As an executive officer in the Education Department and
attesting documents, etc., is like being a cog in the wheel of a system similar to
an oath commissioner in the courts.

3. Whereas as a District Education Officer, one is approached, coaxed and
pampered in one context or the other due to the tagged nuisance value and
authority vested in him by the Government of the Punjab.
It is high time that we give the due respect to the teacher and try to give him pre
and in-service training in our divisional, district and tehsils through our available
infrastructures first and to start with let us address our weak areas’ first but along
with other curriculum items too. The start point could be from the tip of the
iceberg and the 80 /20 principle. To my mind we ought to go according to the
iceberg principle if you take care of the tip of the iceberg (Approximated to be
20% - the visible portion – the problem) the remaining 80% shall be taken care of
automatically). Let’s take the lead and train our teachers’ and give them a head
start … through a series of Character Development Seminars’. And be the
change agents and in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “ Be the Change, you want
to see.”