One of my friends came to see me at my office and wanted to discuss his concerns for his younger brother. He was bothered that his brother was wasting time. He wanted to motivate him to focus on his studies. To be frank, I am not an expert or a motivational speaker, but we do share a wonderful bond. He might have chosen trust over credentials for sharing his concerns, I guess. I asked him – ” Close your eyes and think of a person. Tell me who comes to your mind? ” He quickly answered, “My uncle”, (he teaches college students at one of the most reputed universities in the U.S.A), “and I asked why? He said that my uncle is very knowledgeable, he knows a lot about this world. Since he reads a lot, I get to know a lot from him.” He is motivating and an inspiring personality. He patiently answered me, in a very soft tone. I did offer him some suggestions but after he left, I kept on thinking about it. After looking at some of the recent research, I found that Motivation is “the set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behaviour toward attaining a goal (Greenberg & Baron, 1993, p. 114).” There can be several questions worth finding like
- What is motivation and how do we motivate people?
- What are the characteristics of a great motivator?
- Who can motivate young people?
- What are the benefits of motivation?
Bright, and dark spots in Bihar
Patna is the capital of Bihar, the population is close to 6 million people (Census, 2011). We do enjoy a rich history. Bihar was once a hotspot for scholars (Read Nalanda University, Vikramshila, Bodh Gaya, Vishnupad. In a way, education was always a primary profession in Bihar. Not talking about its contribution to GDP but definitely, it was always a popular education destination. We had some of the best teachers, scholars who later went on to become world leaders. However, unlike the past, the present status of education of formal education at colleges and schools is deplorable (particularly government-run schools and colleges, private counterparts don’t have resources as well). This arises from that fact that schools lack teachers, even today more than 3 lakhs positions of school teachers are lying vacant. The existing 4 lakh teachers are already on strike affecting 45000 schools out of the 76000 schools in the state. With the worst pupil-teacher ratio and student per classroom ratio, more than 65 % of students of grade 7 lacking the literacy level of grade 2. Undergraduate and graduate education in colleges in no better. The academic sessions usually run late, a three-year degree might take you five years to complete. With the dearth of teaching faculties and resources, what more can we expect? We have been having this shortage for more than a decade, more than 10000 teaching positions are lying vacant in colleges in Bihar. As a result, a huge number of college students migrate. The numbers are very large, so is the financial burden on the families. However, there some bright spots as well. Patna is considered as an educational hub like Kota, for preparing for competitive examinations. You might find coaching institutes conducting courses that also help them clear their board or college exams for that purpose. So you get to see, both the world at the same place. The environment is competitive, filled with student aspirations for either craking a coveted exam or securing a government job or getting selected into engineering, medical or banking services entrances, not to forget getting selected in an I.A.S exam is probably equivalent to attaining “Nirvana.”Success in any of these competitive exams provides a safe future, recognition and better prospects of marriage. One of the disadvantages of this system is, students, end up studying something which they might not have always wanted to study. Thus, a professional mid-life crisis is also not uncommon. However, education and vocation are two separate areas.
Education, wellbeing and motivation
Education is not confined to only K-12, college, schools focused on literacy, numeracy and skills needed to have decent standards of living. It should also lead to developing skills that lead to decent standards of values that motivate us to be a healthy and useful member of society. To emancipate the drashta, Karta and bhogta(observer, actor and receiver) (Please refer to the previous blog post on wellbeing for details) of an individual that leads to their overall wellbeing, education can play a fundamental role. Having a positive worldview without any physical, social or psychological ailments is the terminal goal of life. (Sinha, 2002, p 172) Motivation will help us to be active, engaged and focussed towards attaining goals, an educated mind will choose the right goals, goals that lead us to have positive worldview with a healthy body, mind and soul. Wellbeing and motivation are very closely related, motivated students, motivated teachers, motivated parents, and motivated peers in our society will lead to positive outcomes for everyone.
Do share how can we motivate teachers? How can we motivate students? How can we motivate parents? How do you motivate yourself?
I leave you here, but I would love to hear your comments, feedback or any suggestions.
Stay Blessed!
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