Abdul Kalam’s ‘class’ on ideal teacher

‘’What does it mean when we say the Government College of Teacher Education has completed 100 years?’’ The question was posed by former President A P J Abdul Kalam to teacher educators seated in front of him in the college hall. He gave the answer too: ‘’It means the college has orbited 100 times around the Sun.’’ What else to expect from the missile man, the crowd cracked into a cheer.

 What followed was the usual magic that he spells upon his audience whenever he takes the centre stage. Often reminding the audience of a classroom where the teacher suddenly throws a question and stares at the students expecting an answer. And the way he administers oaths putting a sudden life into a drab function.

 At the function at the B Ed College, he asked the audience to repeat the 11-point pledge with him. And they did. It said: ‘’Teaching is my soul; My life is a lesson to the students’’ and so on and on.   He reiterated that youth was the important resource of a nation, of the Earth and it was the teachers who carried out the mission of creating resourceful youth for the Earth. The teacher should be able to offer a creative classroom to a child where he is taught the dynamics of smile, the need for self-confidence and the need to be employment-generators instead of employment-seekers.

 He detailed on how an ideal teacher should be, how an ideal classroom ought to be and how teachers should elevate children to great citizens. He repeated that only elevated souls can be teachers.

 After winding up his speech, he announced a gift to the college - a couple of books for the library. He also wanted to be targeted with questions. The first was put across by a teacher who asked how he viewed the  deterioration of values in the present generation. Kalam replied that children were basically innocent. ‘’It is upon the parents and primary school teachers to inculcate values in children,’’ he said.

 A student wanted to know if it was possible for India to achieve the growth that he has envisioned in his book ‘India 2020: A vision for the new Millennium.’ ‘’It is possible if India registers a GDP growth of 8 to 10 per cent in the next coming years. Hard work is needed,’’ he said.

 Another girl wanted to know why the parents and students were after Engineering and Medicine and nobody wanted to become scientists. ‘’There should be a science cadre like IAS cadre which will see more interest in science. I am pushing that idea,’’ Kalam he finished off.

 The college brought out a centenary souvenir which was released by Mayor K Chandrika by giving a copy to G Gopinathan, Alumni Association secretary. The foundation stone for the new centenary building was laid by Kalam and he also gave away the gold medals to two students of the college who came first in the B Ed and M Ed examinations of the Kerala University. Though Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb was expected at the function, he did not turn up.