`Erosion in value system in civil society'

BANGALORE: Francis Fanthome, chief executive and secretary of the C.E.S.C.E. who is also secretary for the Inter-State Board for Anglo-Indian Education says that it is high time the achievements of teachers were rewarded. "In this state, especially in this city, you have some of the most committed and dedicated of teachers, but they are given no encouragement by the media, no wonder they have no role-model," he rued.On the concluding day of the 79th Annual Conference of the Association of Heads of Anglo-Indian Schools in India, Fanthome pointed out that: "There is an erosion in the value system in civil society as a whole, not just with teachers. As a social body, we are not the caring and committed people we once were. Increased materialism, globalisation, competitiveness have affected everyone''s thinking, and teachers too reflect partly this shift in attitudes." He, however, pointed out to other professionals, including an engineer or a doctor "who cuts up a patient, and refuses to proceed with the operation until certain monies are paid to him" and he said, "if you rate all professionals on a scale, teachers will still stand higher than the rest." Ways in which the effectiveness of teachers should be enhanced was only one of the many subjects deliberated upon during the conference. Other subjects included `Careers in the new millennium'', `Principals as educationists'', `Improving health'', and `Information technology and the classroom of the new millennium'' and other topics relevant to present day education. Fanthome dwelt on the news proposals by the School Council in India with regard to education and suggested that "the traditional examinations system should be abolished and introduction of the semester system with grades should be followed." To the question about why institutions today continued to cling to the tag "Anglo-Indian schools" when there were hardly any Anglo-Indians left in the schools, Fanthome, himself a member of the community, retorted, "Why not?Basically this is a legacy that has been left to this country by the community, and the status has been defined in the Constitution. The community and their schools have every right to safeguard their language, script and culture." He recollected the time when the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Morarjee Desai, had tried to rule that "only Anglo-Indians will go to Anglo-Indian schools", the association moved the Supreme Court, stating a case of discrimination "and we won the case." "Anglo-Indian schools are far ahead of their times," Fanthome continued. "Culturally, functionally and administratively, we are among the most national schools," he asserted, pointing out that that Government schools for which the state pays a large part of it''s exchequer, had practically no students from the minority sections.