Register / Login
In an email interview to the Honorary Editor of DeNobili.edu.in, Fr Sebastian Puthenpura, SJ, Principal-designate of De Nobili School, FRI shares his views on issues like teacher-student relationship, approaches to education, internet and role of alumni.
Q: How do you define a teacher-student relationship?
A: I would have been much more at ease if you had asked me to describe rather than define a teacher-student relationship because by defining a relationship we are trying to confine it within the limited scope of a few words or sentences. It is much more complex than we would imagine. A teacher has to play myriad roles within a classroom as well as outside of it. He/she has to be at the same time a friend, a mentor, a counselor, a motivator, a facilitator, and/or a father/mother, besides being the one who imparts knowledge. I believe that learning is a life-long process for both the teacher and the taught and they play complementary roles in this process of learning. Students too come with rich experiences of their own to the class and it is the teacher who enables the students to turn these experiences into life-long learning.Q: How do look at the role of De Nobili School in the broader region? As you might be aware that Dhanbad is faced with many ills. Do you think Nobilians have a greater role than mere studies?
A: An action without knowledge is just an impulse and the knowledge without action is just barren. And so the knowledge that we acquire in the school or elsewhere has to be put into practice in our life. The primary aim of our education, I believe, is to make a person a good human being, and a good human being cannot ignore the ills of the society. As Nobilians you are a cut above the rest and therefore much is expected from you in making our society a better place to live in. There are people and organizations in our society who blatantly and unjustly hijack the law abiding citizens for their own selfish agenda and defy any semblance of sanity. Your intellectual credentials and logical reasoning can play a vital role in curing these ills of the society by sustaining a healthy democracy over a rabid mobocracy.
Q: You have spent time both India and the US. How different is the approach to education/teaching?
A: It is very important to understand the contexts of both India and USA before we attempt to make a value judgment on education/teaching. I was fortunate to undergo two internship programmes as part of my course requirement in a Prep School (Stds. 9 to 12) and the principal of the school was gracious enough to put me in all the possible departments in the school and therefore I am able to make some credible remarks on both India and USA. In a nutshell, I would say that the students in USA have a much better advantage over their poor cousins in India in terms of infrastructure facilities, modern technologies, smart classrooms with individual computers/laptops, smaller number of students in a class, and so on. But they depend so much on these machines and gadgets that their memory power, retention capacity and on-the-spot thinking ability are all impaired. The cost of education here is mind-boggling. A student has to pay a minimum of $950 per month in the school where I was working. I am proud to say that our students, in spite of our poor facilities, will do much better academically and grow as much better human persons.
Q: What is your opinion about the usage of modern communication tools like internet for a small town school like De Nobili?
A: In this matter I envy the Americans and you can access internet 24x7 from any part of the country and I might attribute the progress this country has made to this revolution in communication. But remember 40 per cent of the computer engineers who are working in the Silicon Valley are from India! India's loss is America's gain. It is not that we are incapable of achieving similar feat in our own country, but we are beset with so many petty problems that it would take many years for us to have uninterrupted internet communication in small town schools like De Nobili. I am completing two years here in USA and till today I have never experienced any power-cut even when there is blizzard, snow-storm or thunderstorm. Can you recall a week spent in Digwadih without any power-cut?
Q: How do you look at the role of alumni towards DNS? What are your expectations? What role can alumni play?
A: Some of you may be aware of the recent furor in some of the branch schools over the proposed fee-hike. And you also know that these schools do not get any public funding. So they have to depend entirely on the fees collected. To provide a good education the school has to spend on decent salary, infrastructure facilities, technology, professional development of the faculty and staff, well-equipped laboratories, and so on. It is not possible to provide all these facilities with the fees that the schools collect from the students. In a situation where a good education is a rare commodity you were fortunate to go through the portals of De Nobili School and I am sure you are grateful for that rare opportunity. You can express your gratitude by being part of your alma mater by providing with the necessary wherewithal in its efforts to grow from good to better and from better to the best.