Teachers’ Day is observed on 5 September, every year. In Hindi, a teacher is called “gu-ru”, “Gu” means darkness and “ru” means light. So, a teacher is one who leads from darkness to light.
Guru-Shishu relationship is like that of parents and their children. As a mother or father loves her/ his sons and daughters, in the same way the teacher should love his pupils. Accordingly a great responsibility lies on the shoulders of teachers. To a great extent, future of students depends on their preceptors and instructors.
It is the teacher who creates inclination and avidity in students and provides them with an incentive for performing good deeds and prevents them from devilish acts. “In every religion a teacher is put at high pedestal. So is in Islam. It gives much importance to them. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said: “I have been sent as a teacher. He further said: “I have been sent to complete good manners.”
In the words of Saint Kabir: “If the entire land surface of the world were turned into pens, they would not suffice to describe the greatness of a true Guru.”
It is unfortunate that today this noble profession has lost its glory. Some teachers have almost lost their honour and dignity by involving themselves in unholy and obnoxious activities. Due to some felonious and callous incidents of theirs, people have lost faith in Guru-Shishu relationship.
We may recall the recent incident of 16-year old girl who was raped by the principal and his colleague of a Govt. School in Delhi. Such incidents have been almost a permanent feature in our dailies. Besides umpteen cases of their inhuman punishment to pupils, such cases are also often reported.
According to a newspaper report, Brijesh Prajapati, a Class VI student in a Primary School, Farrukhabad, UP, was found chatting in the class. It incensed his teacher so much that he beat him to death. Arpit Kavadia, a Class XII student in Udaipur died after his teacher hit him repeatedly as Arpit’s legs were dangling outside the school desk. Prasad Naskar, a Class VII student of a higher secondary school in Baruipur was brutally beaten by his headmaster for not turning up in school uniform. The headmaster left the boy in an unconscious state.
No doubt, on account of moral debasement and lack of proper training, such heinous crimes and hair raising incidents have become the order of the day.
It is time teachers cultivated good qualities and sublime norms and set themselves as true gurus; only then celebration of “Teachers’ Day” will be meaningful and appropriate.
[The writer is a Lecturer, Nadwa College, Lucknow, U.P.]