Will teaching be an attractive job in the years ahead? Will it arouse the interest of would-be teachers to move into that field or will it have the same fate as its counterpart in England where the British are turning more and more their backs on teaching because of the mounting violence and indiscipline at school coupled with the insecurity of the teachers? I am afraid we are moving in that direction within a decade if nothing is done to curb violence in our schools.

This year in England some 16 pupils have been stabbed to death. The knives seized and exposed are simply staggering. How can we imagine pupils turning up at schools with such offensive and dreadful weapons? To shield the pupils from stab wounds, a special knife-wound jacket has been fashioned in case of a knife attack.

Today, anyone in teaching will tell you that it has become increasingly difficult. The teacher is utterly bogged down and his task becomes doubly difficult when he does not get the assistance of his pupils. There are many pupils who come to school simply to put a spoke in the wheel of the teacher and disturb the class. It is these pupils who make teaching an arduous task and leave a bitter pill in the mouth of those who have selected teaching as career. It is these undesirable elements who downgrade the performance of the school by their uncooperative behaviour in class. When they deliberately put a spoke in the wheel of the teacher, it is the teaching and the learning which carry the can. The teacher cannot operate and those who are in class to learn have to bear the cost.

The new generation of pupils is becoming more and more assertive and intractable. And teaching them may turn out to be a sour experience. How can we account for it when upper form students turn up drunk in class, are prone to all sorts of mischief like pelting the teacher writing on the blackboard with pieces of chalk and rubber and pick up litter on the floor to hurl at him. How can a teacher operate in an atmosphere like this in spite of all his enthusiasm, devotion and goodwill for his work? Anyhow teaching has to be done, and on the occasion of the Teachers? Day, let us reflect on how we can make teaching regain its status of noble profession and its ?lettres de noblesse?. To make teaching regain its old status and make it an enticing job, certain measures will have to be taken at disciplinary level. All the undesirable elements and troublemakers will have to be called to order and understand that, unless they cooperate for the smooth running of the class, they will be looked upon as misfits in class and, as such, there is no room for them at school. To implement these measures a legal framework will have to be set up to empower the teacher and the rector to act against these class-disturbers.

A class run with the undivided cooperation of the attendance is not only smooth and enjoyable but also where teaching and learning are performed swimmingly. It is sad to note that today class disturbers get the tacit cooperation of their classmates instead of cooperating with the teacher to get rid of them. Gone are the days when the class would side with the teacher. They fail to understand that, in siding with the class disturbers, they are digging their own graves. The teacher is never the loser. It is the class disturbers along with the rest of the class who are the losers when the class is disturbed. Therefore, to make teaching and learning functional, the class should be free of disturbers.

This is the only way to bail out teaching from the clutch of class disturbance to make it easy and enjoyable. Otherwise, very few will move into that sector, especially ladies because teaching has become increasingly difficult.

<B>Raj Paneken