Teacher Empowerment
Mahtab Ahmad | Al-Barkaat Public School
A teacher is a boon to the society. He builds an individual and reforms the society. Building a good individual rests in the hands of both parents and teachers. God sends the human beings on the earth with body soul and mind, but all ingrown and unformed. The parents bring up, nurture and nourish children, but it is the teachers who can help children attain the perfect growth and formation of mind and soul.
At the early stage whatever is instilled in the mind of children leaves impression forever.The piousness and profanity of the soul of an individual also depends upon the teachers. Needless to say, children are clay and teachers are sculptors. Therefore, a teacher has a great role to play. He should be full of merits. A good teacher is one who possesses the qualities of head and heart. He should have sound intellectual acumen, knowledge, wisdom, experience of life, logic, reason, rationale, justice, honesty and integrity and a long list of good qualities.
Thus, a teacher should be empowered in all aspect. There are two types of empowerment. One is internal empowerment while the other is external. The former is related to his personal qualities while the latter is influenced by organizational factors. Under internal empowerment, he should be just and committed to his profession. As this is a very challenging profession, a teacher should have a good command over his subject and communication skills. As this is a fair and pious profession their should be no scope of misguiding the children in any way. A teacher should justify his profession by imparting the knowledge to the children to the required level of standard. He should also update himself of the subject and surroundings from time to time. He should never be stereo typed, orthodox and conservative. A teacher is a good pedagogue. He should make his subject more interesting and informative through various innovative ideas. He should be creative and relate his subject to day to day life and examples. He should have intuition and insight. He should be keen observer, a good judge and a psychologist. He should be a good motivator and catalyst . He should have a potential to explore the talent of the children and inspire them as well as instill manners, etiquette and discipline. He can be a role model full of sincerity, dedication responsibility, reliability, confidence, grit and determination, self esteem, and over all knowledge and wisdom like a perfect gentleman.
However, under external empowerment, he feels sometimes weak and shattered when he is considered inferior, low profile against superior and high profile profession. Although teaching is itself the high profile profession.They are pushed into lots of paper work and formalities belonging to non-teaching jobs, thus killing the academic talents of them through wastage of time and energy in this way. Moreover, sometimes teachers are exploited by means of salaries drawing undue advantages. Teachers are so crushed that the inferiority complex develops in them. They suffer from master-servant attitude in private organizations. There is no any say of a teacher. They are seldom let be involved in the decision making. They are weak by status and financial positions. They have no autonomy and opportunities for professional development and self-efficacy.
Hence, it is the duty of the institutions to empower and strengthen the teachers. Here is required the teacher empowerment. They should have a word of encouragement from the organization side. He should be endowed with lots of academic and co academic opportunities. He should have freedom and emancipation from anything that hinders the academic potentials and calibre. The organization should release him from the unwanted network ,so called -work load, and lessen his stress and strain. He should be tension free. Only then he can discharge his duties and justify his profession. He should be involved more in teaching learning process. Moreover, he can also be empowered through workshops and seminars. He should be made equipped with the educational technology. He should be made to feel his status and respect. His financial position should be updated from time to time. His value should be realized. He belongs to grade ‘A’ elite group. If these conditions are met and teachers in themselves possess all those qualities and justify their profession, only then the implication of the teacher empowerment can be realised. It is the two way communication. As it is said, “it takes two make a tango”. There should not be any communication gap between the teacher and taught, teacher and management. This is the way to sharpen the sense of teacher empowerment and make it much sounder.
