Dr Hanif Kanjer, September 2023
I grew up with two amazing teachers in my building, Pushpa aunty and Mrs M. My mom enrolled me with Pushpa aunty when I was in primary school. I was her first student and a poster boy for all the later batches when I became the founder director at Rustomjee. I studied with her until grade 4.
Pushpa aunty was strict yet friendly, and her tuition classes were like a fish market. Students of all age groups studying together at the same time. If you stood outside her flat, you’d hear ‘Twinkle twinkle little star’, ‘Shivaji’s coronation’, ‘quadratic equations’, and ‘force motion’ all at the same time in loud voices. Amidst all the commotion and her cooking, she had an uncanny ability to discern which child was giving a wrong answer.
I wish we could have formal schools run as mixed age group classes. There would be so much cross-learning, peer learning, peer tutoring and self learning in such a chaotic environment.
Mrs M, a French teacher at a leading boys’ school in Borivali lived on the first floor and I lived on the 3rd floor.
Often during summer holidays my friends and I would stealthily walk up the stairs so that she wouldn’t notice us. We would avoid being caught by her because she would then ask us to help her with correcting her French answer sheet bundles. She was such a kind lady we could never refuse her even if we didn’t want to do the corrections.
My friends and I spent many Diwali afternoons and summer afternoons correcting Grade 8 and 9 French papers for her.
At that time I believed I was helping her, but in fact, she was in a way preparing me for my future career, teaching me a valuable lesson that when you give responsibility to a young student, you prepare the student for bigger responsibilities later in life.
This was many moons ago, and having been in the teaching profession for two decades now, I can appreciate how challenging a teacher’s job is, and what drudgery some aspects of the job are.
One particularly stressful responsibility is invigilation duty.
After a lot of internal deliberation over the past couple of years, this year we decided to seek parental support with invigilation duties at all our schools.
The overwhelming response led to an almost 50% reduction in invigilation duties for the teachers. The time saved will allow teachers to undergo additional professional development programs, as well as truly enjoy their holidays with their family without the burden of school work during the holidays. We welcome more people to volunteer their time.
I think it is one of the best ways of saying “thank you” to a teacher by offering to lighten their workload.
We are ever so grateful to our Rustomjee parents for providing such crucial support and relief.
Wish all of you a Happy Teachers’ Day.