Hyderabad, September 18: “I have been an educator for 50 years and a member of the legislative council for 2 years, so please don’t treat me like a politician. I come to you as a teacher,” said Chukka Ramaiah. The founder of Ramaiah IIT Coaching Institute was speaking at the felicitation programme organised by the Osmania Graduates’ Association for the recipients of the States’ best teachers awards.
The educator turned MLC said that the OGA was performing yeomen service by running educational institutions in ‘backward’ Telangana districts. The Osmania Graduates’ Association runs 18 colleges in districts across Telangana.
The ‘IIT guru’ also slammed the trend of ‘education as commerce’. “We live in the market yugam where educational institutions are profit-making ventures and teachers are coaches,” he decried.
He also spoke out in defence of aided colleges.
“Sometimes when I raise the issue of more financial support for aided colleges they say it cannot be done because of World Bank stipulations, I sometimes wonder whether this country is being run by democracy or by the World Bank,” he said.
He exhorted teachers in general and OGA in particular to make their views on education known to the government. “In Harvard University even the vice chancellor cannot be appointed without approval from the old boy’s network, this is how teachers here should be,” he said.
Extolling the virtues of teachers he said that they played a crucial role in forming their students’ character. “New ideas originate in universities and are nurtured by teachers in students and then become commitments towards society,” he said.
Prof L Linga Murthy, Vice-Chancellor of Kakatiya University also spoke at the occasion.
He also congratulated OGA on working to provide education in Telangana. He also said that after economic liberalisation in the 90s the trend in education was of the mushrooming of private colleges. He said that though the University Grants Commission wanted 15 per cent enrolment in higher education by 2010, care should be taken about quality. “The National Knowledge Commission has recommended the construction of 1,500 more universities, but care should be taken so that the quality of education is not compromised.”
—IANS