Studying in one
of the foremost and most prestigious (or so it’s called) institutes of Social
Work for Rural Development in Maharashtra for the past one year has enabled me
to structure my long held thoughts on education better. Education is no more a means
to apply knowledge and develop thinking capacities. Today learning has been
reduced to being just a medium to ensure one a secure financial future. In the
context of my college I can say thus; what is expected of the Agents of Change
is very much in contradiction to what these Agents expect of themselves.
Concerns of personal future monetary gains are so deep rooted that they far supersede
the greater common good for which they claim to have taken up the course.
‘If the ends are
satisfied, the ethics surrounding the means are often ignored.’ The following
example would help elucidate this statement.
Ex: ‘A good (meaning ‘good placements offering’)
college with bad lecturers and poor teaching quality faces no protests from
the students. Protest is automatically suppressed in the delight of the expected
future good.
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I have been
witness to innumerable complaints by students most of which emphasize upon the bad
food offered, uncomfortable hostels, unfriendly college timings, unnecessary extra
classes, etc. None seem to voice opinions regarding the more important points
of bad teaching quality and lack of institutional infrastructure to help
support our learning. Apart from empty talks amongst a group of friends during
lunch or tea, very little initiative is taken in the direction of demanding
better quality teachers, most of who happen to be former Social Workers who
completed their PhDs from any random university and joined the bandwagon of incompetent
university lecturers.
It isn’t
difficult to figure out why students remain silent on these issues. Today’s
materialistic world has made them so concerned about their future jobs that
they fear to protest. The fear rises from the obvious possibility of them being
rusticated in the name of ‘misconduct’. Placements have made each one of them
so selfish and competitive that there is an utter lack of unity. Fears of
gaining a bad impression with the professors surpass all other concerns. Thus, my
esteemed Social Work institute continues to churn out students who are taught
to suppress dissent in order to gain better grades. With them failing to
advocate for their own rights, how is one to expect them to do anything for the
people in the future.
In the first few
months of our course, we were taught about how we were lucky to have got a
chance to study in this college which has given the country some of its best professional
social workers. ‘Professional’ of course stood for ‘expert’, ‘trained’ and
‘skilled’; but it was also emphasized (more profoundly, yet indirectly) that it
stood for someone who commands a good pay-check in the job market.
“Don’t mistake
Social Work with Social Service. We don’t need Gandhis and Mother Teresas. The
industry needs professionals not sympathizers”, we were told coldly by our professor.
Social work education
seems to stress excessively on the need to be professional as compared to the
need to balance it out with being sensitive. The social work sector has been publicized
as an ‘industry’ to such an extent that most social work students join with the
sole intention of earning a big fat salary in the future. Very few go on to
work in the grassroots except when left with no other option.
And when asks
one, “What about the primary aim of SW?” prompt comes the answer, “Oh well, we
certainly will be working for them. We will be using our professional skills
and specialized knowledge (from our air-conditioned cabins in big cities) in
order to bring a change in their lives. Of course we will.”
But in a country
like ours where poverty seems rampant, how does one view a professional work attitude?
It is good to be professional in one’s work,
but being professional in the approach towards one’s work, especially when that
happens to be social work is shameful.
