A regular and constant assessment of any human activity is a prerequisite for proper growth and development. This is equally applicable to education. It becomes all the more important these days when so much of hue and cry for imparting quality education is in the air. In India, whenever a particular political party with distinct ideology and background comes to power, it invariably chalks out an education policy, upsetting, thus, the apple cart of the current education system. New syllabi are formed, some new additions are made, and some chapters pertaining to persons and ideologies of previous Sarkars are dropped.

But in the midst of all this so-called educational din and fanfare, the emphasis, however, is always laid on the necessity of constant and candid assessment of the performance of the teacher and the taught by all the governments without fail. To this end, novel ideas and procedural modes are tossed, discussed in seminars and workshops and quite often are forgotten in course of time. Then comes another government and re- starts the process over and over again. Unfortunately, till date, no full-proof assessment policy has been formed, or if formed, not properly implemented.

C.C. cameras in the class rooms, the use of audio-visual aids by the class room teacher, the requirement of regular publications of research papers by the teachers, the orientation programmes and refresher courses organized from time to time for the academic uplift of the teachers, API scores and CRs, smart classes, dress-codes and elaborate and hectic time-tables, and above all, the much too impinging emphasis on all such modes and procedures have become the order of the day and an academic vogue. All of them, once again, seems to have been imported from the Western world-the education systems as followed by the U.S. and Europe. I believe that such imports even if well planted in our Indian soil will do no substantial good to imparting quality education in the long run. It is also firmly believed that what India basically needs is a galaxy of conscientious class-room teachers. It does not mean that researchers are not required. What is emphasized is the degree of significance and a necessity of a shift in our academic paradigm. It may be recalled that the opening sentence of the Report of the Kothari Commission so avowedly says. "The destiny of a nation is built in its class-rooms." The very statement clearly hints at the sine qua non of class-room teaching and of imparting quality education for which we direly requirededicated and sincere teachers—a  team of hardcore and meritorious mentors. Like blue-blooded bureaucrats. Teachers before attending to their classes must have undergone intensive and extensive drilling. Then and then only can we hope to have well-meant and well-meaning educationists.

I seem to believe that the various modes of the assessment of the performance of a teacher, which are prevalent at present are somewhat insufficient and need to be modified as per the demands of the Indian socio- cultural ethos and background. As a matter of fact, the present yardsticks to measure such class-room conduct and carrying out of a teacher look outwardly, West-oriented and, therefore, not befitting to the Indian education system. It may, therefore, be replaced by self-assessment which is an inward process and almost a call of the inner being.
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While assessment runs the risk of falling short of believing in the very integrity of a teacher, self-assessment may have the chance to uplift the conscience and self-esteem of the person. A self-assessed and self-assessing person a sublimated being and his enlightenment is potent enough to raise others to the level of noble living and thinking.

Teaching is both an art and a science. It is, above all, a process of self-realization. But in order to be so, the teacher should not only teach-for that even a B.Ed. and M.Ed. passed out very well can-but perform himself in the class. He should re-live the experience of the book/subject he is teaching. What Yeats, the Irish poet said, "How can we distinguish the dancer from the dance?"-is also applicable to the persona of a performing teacher in the class-room. When the teacher and the teaching are oned, then and then only can he take his disciples onto a journey of noble and true education. Then and then only, he can claim to be a guru in the exact line of the ancient Aryan culture and realize the ideal postulate of the opening statement of the Kothari Commissions Report. The Guru must be a visionary with high social commitments and pre-concerns-as was envisioned by one of the greatest Gurus of all times-Kautilya Vishnugupta.