Rudraprayag DM Mangesh Ghildiyal seems to be a man of both initiative and benevolence. This became evident from the love he received from the people in Bageshwar district during his last posting. He's now the DM of Rudraprayag. Going by the initiatives he takes, he will make himself endearing to people of Rudraprayag as well.

That said, a couple of days ago, I read a news report about his visit to a Government Girls' Inter College in Rudraprayag district. He found that the school is going through a scarcity of teachers. As a quick fix solution for the vacant position of TGT Science, he requested his wife to fill in the role temporarily. As per the report, the DM's wife accepted the request, and she has been teaching there from the past couple of weeks.

At face value, the initiative taken by the DM seems praiseworthy. Going by the initiative, benevolence and concern shown by him; it's indeed praiseworthy. But the action itself raises many questions. These questions are important, that's why we must look at them as well.

The first question is,

There're certain procedures, conditions, eligibility which need to be complied with before a person can be recruited as a teacher, either permanently or temporarily.

A person can be a perfect fit for a job, but were these conditions complied with?

Hence although the DM's solution may appear great; it's just a quick fix solution.

The second question which comes to mind is that of morale.

A properly recruited teacher (by following all the procedures for such recruitment) may or may not be good at his work. But that doesn't mean he/she is unfit for the job. In simple words, he/she can only be compared with another teacher. A teacher must not be compared with someone who essentially is not a teacher.

The third question which comes to mind is the optimum solution for the scarcity of teachers.

If there's a scarcity of teachers, then the most optimum solution is to recruit new teachers, through a proper notification and ensuing processes. This will not only solve the scarcity through proper selection process, but will also give a wider and more equal opportunity to all those young men and women, aspiring to be a teacher.

To conclude, teaching is an important job. It must not be seen from an entirely benevolence or service perspective. Just like any other profession, people take to teaching to earn a livelihood. This must be kept in mind. Else, we as guardians or parents will keep looking for people who can teach our kids for motivations other than money. A situation which will not be very good, because in order to build good education system we need a uniform availability and quality of teachers.

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