Sunday, 28 October 2018

Impact of civil service conduct rules on teachers and education


My letter published in The Hindu on 26.10.18

On the one hand, the government is worried that there are no Indian universities in the top 100 universities of the world; on the other, it shows a lack of understanding regarding the difference in the role played by teachers and other public sector employees (“An ‘anti-national’ regulation”, Oct. 25). University teachers are expected to teach students how to analyse critically, think logically and approach issues rationally so that they emerge as scholars, thinkers, writers, administrators, inventors and innovators. But if the teachers are subjected to civil service conduct rules and a suffocating atmosphere is created in universities as a result, what critical thinking training can possibly be given to the students? It looks like educational reforms are going in the reverse direction. After the implementation of these rules, no teacher who is a public employee can engage in public discussions on government policies through lectures, articles, or even letters to the editor.

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