18.Is it enough that a good teacher teaches only?

 

Teachers are obviously appointed to teach students. These days a typical teacher in an engineering college is required to do the following: conduct theory and practical classes, give assignments and evaluate them, conduct class tests and return their answer scripts in a reasonable time, conduct semester examination at the end of a semester, give internal or sessional marks to the students based on their performance in the class tests and assignments etc. In addition, if the college is affiliated to a university and if he is appointed as examiner for theory paper, value the answer scripts and send the mark list to the university within the stipulated time and conduct practical examinations at different centres if they are asked to do etc. Wherever they are, teachers are required to be  fair in their evaluation and any sort of discrimination should be avoided.

However, in REC Calicut, right from the beginning, teaching alone was not sufficient if one wants to go up in the career. As higher posts are always filled by open selection and not by promotion based on seniority as in state government or aided colleges, the internal candidates have to compete with others eligible in the department and also with candidates from outside. As selection is not simply based on interview alone, the usual criteria will be what one has done outside the minimum requirement of teaching.  Some  of the  desirable  attributes that may help in career  advancement  are guidance of BTech, MTech and PhD students for their degrees, published research papers in conferences and reputed journals, ,contribution in the departmental administration like modernization of the  existing laboratories, setting up  new laboratories based on their specialization and, help in the upkeep and maintenance of laboratory equipment etc.  Of course, the length of teaching experience may  also  be considered. REC being a national institution, there was need for other things such as organizing continuing education programmes for teachers from other colleges like summer schools or winter schools or short-term training programmes, conduct of national and international conferences, active  participation in professional  society activities to help the students in better  networking  with  professionals globally and improve their communication skills and  leadership  capabilities etc. Many of us in the REC system used to do many of these based on our capabilities and interests. In the beginning, we used to associate ourselves with senior experienced colleagues and slowly conduct these independently once we acquired the experience and confidence. 

Among the above, I had some special interest in professional society activities. In India, the largest professional society of engineers is the Institution of Engineers (India- IEI). I had an offer of free membership in IEI based on my rank  in the B.Sc(Engg) degree examination in Kerala  University  but due  to some reasons, I could  not make use of it. While doing my PhD in I.I.T.Delhi, one  of our  senior  professors in the Systems  group, Prof.P.S.Satsangi,  called a few of the research scholars from different states and asked us to sign a petition to form a  new  professional society called Systems Society of India.  Thus, we became founder members of Systems Society of India (SSI). After returning from IITD, I started   enrolling members to SSI and when we had 20 or more members, decided to start the first chapter of SSI in REC Calicut. Dr.Bharathan was  the President and me the Secretary of the chapter. We had several   talks by our own faculty and a few from outside.

Under  the guidance  of Dr.S.Thiruvengadam, I joined  Institution of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) based  in USA. This organization   has evolved from AIEE, American Institution of Electrical Engineers started by  none other than the great Thomas Alva Edison and Graham Bell  the inventor of telephone as early as 1887 almost on the same year in which the very first electrical power system (DC) was set up by Edison in Manhattan New York. AIEE later merged with Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form IEEE. This is now the largest professional society in the world spread over 10 regions with 7 million members. India Council belongs to Region 10, Asia Pacific. REC Calicut   had one of the earliest student branches of IEEE in Kerala and Dr.Thiruvengadam was the Counsellor of the student branch. I was nominated as the Adviser for the Computer Society chapter of IEEE subsequently. Even though membership in IEEE was a bit expensive as payment was in US dollars at that time, I am still a member of IEEE  and has contributed my bit to improve the interaction between the  members of IEEE in the Northern districts of Kerala. With this objective, we  formed the Malabar Subsection of IEEE under Kerala  section. The geographic region included the districts of Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and  Kasarcode. I am proud to say that I have been immensely benefited by my being an active member of IEEE and could bring up many active volunteers in IEEE who are doing an excellent job in IEEE Kerala  section and beyond.  Dr S.M.Sameer  who was the   first secretary of Malabar Subsection for which I was the founder  Chair is now  the Chair of Kerala Section which has become one of the  most vibrant  sections globally. He was  the treasurer  of IEEE India  Council and is currently Secretary of Region 10  Asia  Pacific. Under Kerala section I also could do my bit as Chairman, Educational Activities  and currently as Chair, Conference Activities Board.  By virtue of my long association with IEEE, I have been honoured to be a Senior Life Member of IEEE. Recently , my fellow  volunteers in IEEE  Kerala  Section  awarded  me with an honour as an Outstanding  Teacher.  My own  fellow  volunteers in Malabar conferred  on me a Life Time  Achievement Award  for what I have done for the  IEEE  members  in this region. This was  followed  by   Life Time Acgivement Award by IEEE  India  Council. I could also become a Fellow of Institution of Engineers India and was the Chair of Kozhikode Local Centre for two years. In fact, more than  these  personal awards, I cherish the  contributions done  by the  younger  volunteers  like Dr.Sameer  and others  who are doing their best in helping the  society at  large and Advancing  Technology to Humanity. Recently in Annual General Body meeting of IEEE Kerala Section, I had the  gratification  of seeing  several of my fellow  volunteers  getting deserving  recognition   through annual  awards by  Kerala  Section.

We decided to conduct a summer school for the teachers in other colleges under the sponsorship of Indian Society for Technical Education. Under this, teachers from other institutions were invited to attend the summer school. Financial support to reimburse their traveling expenses and meet the cost of food and accommodation was provided under this scheme. We could invite visiting faculty from   I.I.Ts and industry for giving guest lectures. At the same time, Dr.B.N.Nagaraj from Civil Engineering department  was also coordinating a summer school. We decided to do the organizational work  of the two summer schools jointly and for the first time, we could together do a good job. Our summer school was on Modelling and Simulation of Engineering Systems and the other on Transportation Engineering. Dr. S.A.Chari, senior professor from REC Warangal  was our chief guest and keynote speaker at the inaugural session. At that time, infrastructure in REC was not good as of now but still we could do a satisfactory job and the feedback from the participants indicated that we had done well.

In short, teachers in the higher educational institutions are to do much more than just teaching the students. They are required to engage in activities that will enhance the communication skills and leadership qualities of the students and help   the less privileged teachers in sister institutions to enhance their knowledge by introducing them to advanced topics in engineering. By doing these, the reputation of the institution will also grow. Research guidance, revenue generation by consultancy and publications are also essential for career advancement in national institutions like  NITs, IITs etc. This does not mean that we can ignore the fundamental requirement of a teacher, to teach our students. It is unfortunate that among the younger teachers these days, there is a tendency to give less importance to teaching with overemphasis on research and publications which is not desirable. Moreover, in these days of information explosion and availability of massive on-line courses and free learning materials on the internet, teaching   in higher educational institutions is a much more challenging job. The minimum that we can expect from a teacher is to never stop learning, even on the day before his superannuation.  It is  said :

“ A good teacher  is one  who becomes  progressively redundant”