THIS is with reference to the letter ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ (Nov 3) which drew a parallel between William Shakespeare’s adage ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ and an Urdu saying Harr Funn Maula. There actually is no comparison as the latter means ‘know it all’. The true translation would be Harr Funn Maula/Harr Funn Adhura (know it all but just about).

In current usage, the English phrase is usually sarcastic in its texture. Calling someone a ‘jack of all trades’ implies that they are not skilful in any of the areas in which they claim to have expertise, and their knowledge or skills are superficial rather than comprehensive. However, the phrase was formerly intended as a compliment, meaning that a person is a generalist rather than a specialist, versatile and adept at many things.

While presenting the character of teachers, the letter has quoted Geoffrey Chaucer, the famous English poet and author, who in writer’s opinion, rightly remarked that ‘when gold rusts, what then will iron do?’

Here the letter has likened teachers in Pakistan as gold, which is not the case, nor are the students iron. They are pretty smart, as information technology explosion has made them well-informed and enabled them to keep pace with the changing world.

Conversely, the present lot of teachers is selfish, lacks knowledge and is devoid of positive strategies of teaching with zest and exuberance. Simply put, they do not want to teach whatever little they know. They do not teach in the classrooms and, instead, offer private tuition packages to students three days a week at an exorbitant cost.

During private sessions also, they run through written notes and self-explanatory multimedia projection. That makes the task easy. They charge the fees in advance. On top of that, the mafia offers preparatory courses to students for admissions to engineering and medical colleges as well as to business schools at astronomical cost.

In short, the situation is deplorable, hopeless and despicable. In the good old days even in some Urdu medium schools, irrespective of the fact that the teachers were lowly-paid, like Rs150 to Rs250 per month, they were committed and relished in proving themselves equal to the task. They produced outstanding students, many of whom reached the zenith of their career, obtaining PhD degrees from abroad and becoming successful professionals.

Those teachers were the real-life Socrates and Platos as far as their students were concerned. Today, it might not be so.

Safir Siddiqui
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2021