IN most schools, parent-teacher meetings, popularly known as PTMs, are proving to be counterproductive in an educational ecosystem like the one we have in the country, and, particularly so when parents are educated enough to point out lacunae in the pedagogy of the institution.

Given the low levels of education and qualification of teachers at ubiquitous private institutions, when parents feel to complain against poor checking of homework notebooks, wrong answers or capability gap between the dictated notes and students’ calibre, the teachers take it as an attack on their ego.

If the matter reaches to the head of the institution, the teachers simply hold out assurances to mend their ways, but then go out of their way to ‘teach a lesson’ to the student whose parents blew the whistle against the neglect of duty.

As part of the vicious retaliation plan, such teachers, in fact, start victimising the complainant parents’ children. They dole out an unwelcoming attitude to these students to the extent that some parents stop attending the PTMs.

The teachers’ nuanced behaviour not only disturbs the students, particularly of early classes, emotionally, but affects their academic performance. To salve one’s piqued ego by picking holes in others is unprofessional and unethical, and a machination of the sadists. Even if such a student commits a peccadillo, the ‘hurt’ teacher takes the parents to task for their child’s ‘mischief’, and the message is insinuated to them that if they want to participate in the PTMs, they should better come as dummies fulfilling a formality. Nobody is interested in any real feedback.

Such happenings have transformed PTMs into marketing stunts as the results of the study tests are withheld till all pending fees and funds have been paid off. Not all parents are educated enough to provide emotional and educational support to their children. This is especially the case in rural areas of the country.

If constructively taken, schools must honour and welcome the parents who give feedback to teachers so that the latter could adjust their pedagogy accordingly for the betterment of the overall teaching environment and the larger academic experience of the students.

Tolerance, largesse and magnanimity are the prescribed cardinal qualities in teachers. They should come down to the educational and intellectual calibre of the students to administer learning effectively, but to stoop so miserably low as to torment the students to settle scores does not behove a teacher and the profession of teaching.

If teaching has been one’s inner calling, such an inhuman or inhumane mindset stands in stark contrast to one’s dedication in offering service to the needed altruistically. Teachers forget that a classroom is the society or world in microcosm. The vendetta-tinged manoeuvrings and machinations of teachers convert human capital of a nation into vectors of hate and violence.

M. Nadeem Nadir
Kasur

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2023