TEACHERS ROLE IN NAVAKERALA CONSTRUCTION

Kerala is the land of beauty and it is a very prominent state in India, which is prestigiously known as the “God's own country”. Kerala is a coastal state which is bordered by a number of beaches; covered by hills of Western Ghats and filled with backwaters. Kerala is very famous for its natural beauty, culture, unity, brotherhood, infrastructure, and so on.

 In the Months starting from May Kerala saw heavy rainfall culminating in a horrific Flood. On the wake of efforts on recovery, the Kerala government started the project “NAVAKERALAM”. It is a project encompassing all the reconstruction, of post-flood Kerala, projects. Actually, this project mainly aims at the upliftment of Kerala in the agricultural sector, health sector, housing sector, education sector, and so on. As teachers play a vital role in the overall development of society, the teacher’s role in navakerala construction is tremendous. They with their extraordinary vision and compassion dedicated their soul for the reconstruction process. The most wonderful thing is that they ensured the participation of students in this holy process and spread the bean of socialization, nationality, and brotherhood among students.

Before getting deeper into the flood, and the role of teachers in navakerala construction, we should look into the role of human being's behind this flood. One can’t ignore the hand of man in the damages and destructions that our water bodies had to face. Flood and the corresponding array of destruction were in a way the after effect of the deeds of humans themselves.

Man and Environment

Environment not only means the immediate surrounding but also various other phenomena like human activity, basic living and its impact on natural resources such as land, water, atmosphere, forest, dams, habitat, energy, research, wildlife and so on. All these grow within their limits without trespassing other jurisdiction, thus keeping the natural balance. But now in this 21^st century the burning question that pummels in the heart of each and every individual who genuinely care for his nation is that “Is our environment safe?.” The answer to this question can solve almost all the problems that we face in the current century. But finding an apt answer to this question is the hardest task one can ever have.

 When we generally look in to our environment, then we can realize that man is the most powerful environmental agent. Human beings always have inhabited two worlds, one is natural world of plants, animal, soil, air, water that preceded us by billions of years and of which we are part of an the other one is the world of social institutions and artifacts, that humans created by themselves using science, technology, and political discoveries. Both these worlds are essential but the over effort on blending both these two major pillars results in the destruction of the environmental balance.

Actually the inhabitation of nature begins with man inventing fire, pointed hunting tools, wheels etc. And slowly they come out of their caves and then they discovered lot more for their livelihood. Each stage of development of human era was a challenge and the deeds of humans were burden to the ecosystem. Now we have reached a level where even the last hope of survival is getting diminished. Man with his thoughtless action had contaminated the water bodies, soil, air, etc. Kerala is a state which suffered immensely due to the after effect of flood. And it was in a way a revenge of the contaminated water bodies. According to the great economist Barbara ward:

“For an increasing number of environmental issues, the difficulty is not to identify remedies. Remedies are well understood. The problem is to make them socially, economically, and politically acceptable.”

What happened in Kerala???

  The Monsoon is what sustains the agricultural sector of the state of Kerala. But the monsoon which started around May 29, 2018, resulted in a heavy flood the kind of the state hadn’t seen before. Out of the 42 dams in kerala around 37 of them and their reservoirs were opened because they were overflowing which in turn increased the severity of the flood. The rich who were lamenting about the lack of facilities to drive their lamborgini were seen on national television riding in a big vessel to get to a safe place. The poor who already had been begging and pleadi ng for a strong roof over their heads lost whatever they had. Now the silver  lining in all of these is the fact that the rich and the poor and the middle class got to experience true brotherhood on 2018 Onam. Everyone had to live together harmoniously in schools and other buildings in high altitudes to wait the nature’s fury.

 The education sector suffered a lot during the flood. For one a lot of old and new government schools suffered severe damage .Second the school at high altitudes which where relatively unaffected by the flood had to accommodate the flood victims thus unable to take classes. The teachers and students are now scrambling madly to make up for the lost time. Thirdly the books of students affected by flood were now irrevocably damaged they need new books, had to make new notes. Whereas the books and stuff kept in schools also didn’t escape the worse fate.

Now we need to reconstruct buildings, people’s livelihoods, student’s books, and everything else.

A New Kerala….

After the disastrous flood The ‘Gods own Country’ needs a complete revamping. It requires a lot of money, resilience and patience. The money part is mostly handled by our politicians, social activists and so on. For the resilience part, I think the flood itself taught us to be resilient. Now for the patience part all of us will need a whole lot of help. Let’s be honest when money is involved there is bound to be speculations, rumors, scams etc, to deal with all of those we need patience, the pace of the works will also be slow, mostly due to the red tapes, again patience.

On realizing the inseparable relationship between the increased pollution rate and the flood the shook the very existence of Kerala, the government of Kerala planned a lot of programs for cleaning the damaged rivers, preventing the unscientific constructions, and hence reducing the rate of pollution under the navakerala project. The project also consist of a series of programmes namely harithakeralam, life, aardram, and public education improvement yajnam.

 Now what is the role of a teacher in all these? We have already discussed the role and importance of teacher in general. For a state which is so proud of its educational and cultural advancements, Kerala needs to show results of its advanced knowledge.

 Kerala flood is not the first vicious flood the nation has saw till date. Sure it was devastating, but much worse floods had happened in Uttarakhand and most recently in Assam. The former is on its road to recovery whereas the latter is still trying to gain its foot on reality. What makes them different from kerala is that they don’t boast the highest educated population. Kerala does.

  The recovery or rather the reconstruction will not happen in a day or a week or a month or may be a year. It will take years. The manpower required has to be supplied and they need to be competent creative and most of all dedicated. It is a teacher’s job to build up such a generation along with their parents. A teacher can exert a lot of influence in a child’s growth.

 In the words of Morris K Udall, “The more we exploit nature, the more our options are reduced, until we have only one to fight for survival.”

Role of teacher

According to Albert Einstein:

“It is the supreme art of teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge”.

Teachers are like rain or one can say that there teaching falls like rain in the forehead of students. If there is no rain, then the result will be ultimate drought. If rain is above the expected limit, then it can lead to flood threat over rain soaked areas. At the same time if we get normal amount of rain, then it will lead to great yields and prosperity. Similarly if teaching is done in its actual level then only a flourishing and successful nation can be built. So the role a teacher in the construction of a phantasmagoric nation is above the horizon. Teachers can be considered as the backbone of each child. They mould the students and their future accordingly in order to make them responsible citizen of the country. According to Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam:

“Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher that will be the biggest honor for me.”

Today’s children’s are tomorrow’s citizens so it is the responsibility of a teacher to play various roles as a facilitator, guide, counselor, Social Engineer, scaffolder and so on. Teachers has to make students well aware about the problems, crisis, and the hindrances that the nation faces in the present era. Actually students are the greatest wealth of a nation and the have the capability to solve the problems of the nation and they have the potential to remold the world in a new way.

As far as the navakerala construction project is concerned, teachers have immense role. Teachers took this project as a part of their life and truly did a mission of renovating Kerala to a better mode. They with the immense cooperation of students collected a lot of necessary goods for the rescue camps. Many students and teachers worked as volunteers in flood camps.

Teacher as a facilitator

  Teacher can be a facilitator in helping the students gaining a real time experience in reconstruction and collecting money for the navakerala construction project. For example in a school some students opened a canteen to collect money for flood relief under the guidance of some their teachers. Actually it was the idea of a group of teachers. They together raised fund and run the canteen to raise fund for the project.

Teacher as a guide

  Guidance is a key factor in any activity. For a student the right guidance from a teacher is necessary. With the right guidance and incentives the teacher can not only encourage his/her students but through them their families also. Many people were in pain as they lost their house and their life in flood but teachers were able enough to guide them properly. Teachers tried to guide students to work for the affected people. Hence teacher lightened the lamp of unity in students.

Teacher as a counselor

  Flood is a horrible experience to go through even for adults. So the kids are affected badly due to it. All of them will be experiencing some forms of PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder). Some of them had to go through really rough situations in order to survive the ordeal. The persons who interact with them on a daily basis is their teachers. Thus they have a crucial role to play in shaping these kids as mentally healthy individuals who are this states and nations future. Also there were cases of teachers with the involvement of students binded books for the students living in relief camps.

Teacher as a Social Engineer

 The reasons for flood and other natural disasters are mostly man-made which we have already discussed in detail before. It is the responsibility of school, especially the teachers, to ensure proper awareness is given to the students to avoid a repetition of the disasters. Through discussions, seminars, inviting experts in the respective fields, organizing film/documentary festivals which promote sustainable development or discourage unsustainable developmental activities.

   As a social engineer, a teacher encourages his/her student to interact among the students , with their parents and also with the society, which in turn will help them to develop social skill, decision making skill and above all the skill of independent thinking. There were teachers who organized in groups in doing the survey on the various polluted water bodies in Kerala so that it can help the government of Kerala in their project.

Hence we can safely say that in the process of construction of  Navakerala teachers play a significant role. No one can replace them and their relevance.

Reference: Google,A book on environmental studies. For educational purpose