Teaching after graduation: The good, the bad, the ugly

- Dr. Batool Abbas

My career in academics started in September 2015 when I was appointed demonstrator in the Paedodontics Department at CMH Lahore Medical College and Institute of Dentistry. There was one other senior demonstrator and I as regulars, manning four dental operatories, with our head of department as overseer of all affairs. My duties as a demonstrator were fairly basic, regulating outdoor, supervising as well as performing procedures being carried out in the department as well as giving demonstrations to the rotating house officers. Starting out at my alma mater was immensely beneficial as I already knew the staff as well as my potential students, and so my role as an authoritarian became more of a casual friendly one. Since my supervisors had also once been my teachers, I was comfortable enough to continue learning from them different procedures that I was not able to experience as a student or house officer such as rotary endodontics and crown and space maintainer placement in children. However, my time as demonstrator at CMH was quite short as only after four months I was selected through the Punjab Public Service Commission for government service and posted as demonstrator at Punjab Medical College and Allied Hospital Faisalabad.

Having never lived away from home I set out with the exciting notion of independence and making it in this world on my own with no idea what to expect from hostel life in a government college. I was appointed Assistant Warden at the Girls Hostel due to a lack of vacancy at the Doctors Residences. My first nightmare on my journey to self discovery came in the form of my room. Barely fifteen steps wide, with nothing but somebody's charpai and blanket strewn in a corner, a dim bulb the only source of light in a room desperately in need of fresh air and sunlight as there were no windows save a few bullet-shaped holes in the wall. My time at the hostel was an interesting one, making most of plastic furniture and windowless walls, daily recycled food at the mess and all the time in the world on my own. Nonetheless, I was lucky that I was placed in the same hostel as my future students who later on became my greatest source of comfort there.

PMC is an esteemed institution established in the early 70's, producing some of the most renowned doctors and scholars known today. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the dental section, which came into being in 2009 with only 2 batches having passed out since. I was placed in the Prosthodontics Department where we were just four demonstrators to the entire department making us the senior most teachers that the students had to report to. We were in charge of making and delivering lectures, conducting tests and vivas, clinical work, demonstrations, quota and attendance and internal assessment of second, third and final year students. I was about four years senior to the final year class that I was to supervise, but very quickly I realised that I had to portray myself as someone perhaps twenty years older for them to take me seriously. One slip up or frank conversation and they were quick to start taking advantage of you, as is the case with everyone who has had the experience of being a student at a medical college.

Being a fresh graduate had its advantage however, having just sat for the exams that I was to prepare these students for. More often than not professors with higher qualifications tend to get into the complexities of the subject matter where 80-90% of the class fails to reach. As i had experienced this myself as a student it was not hard for me to get down to the level of the students' understanding and bring them up to the standards required to pass the exam. I tried to give them what I would have wanted to gain from my lectures: clarity. The fruit of my labour came in the form of the students' result in the final professional exam, where all students manage to pass the subject and three students even bagged distinctions.

One shortcoming that I faced was my limited knowledge on the subject as a whole. As students, we tend to do selective studying, focussing more on certain favourite exam topics and giving less attention to the less important ones. As a  teacher however, you cannot pick and choose which lectures you want to take and which you don't; you must know everything. Besides that, i would sometimes find myself stumped at some of the more intelligent questions asked by the students. The art of answering a question by not really answering the question is a talent acquired through years of deceiving students.

My experience as a demonstrator at PMC was unique and quite rare as demonstrators are not routinely required to perform such major tasks. Regardless, my advice to all aspiring educationists would be to take this matter into serious consideration that you will be responsible for every piece of information you provide to the students. When choosing a subject fresh after graduation, go for one that you know you have a strong command over, or one that you want to pursue for postgraduation. If you want to make a career in teaching, don't get complacent with your current job. Academics in Pakistan is a rewarding career with a tremendous amount of potential to progress, you just have to take the bull, or rather your life, by the horns and steer it in the right direction.