It has become fashionable on days like today to write status messages, forward what’s app notes and other stuff exalting the teaching profession. This is not necessarily bad. Even if it is for a day at least there is some buzz given to the teaching profession once a year. At least there is some acknowledgement to the role they play in forming a society.
Teaching is a profession that is not very sought after in our country (by and large). You won’t see too many upper middle class men saying that they wish to teach. For young women though it is considered an ideal profession as it is ‘convenient’ for the family.As part of a recent research assignment that involved talking to teachers and students in government schools and colleges about status of teachers. I was disillusioned to find the following:
- Children of teachers do not wish to be teachers. Most of them opt for civil services, police service, bank service, MBA anything but teaching. It seems that the teaching job is not something they aspire to.
- Most college students (Both girls and boys) said that teaching would be their last resort. In their words, “If we do not make it anywhere else”.
- While earlier In-laws would not permit women to work. In today’s times of high prices and higher aspirations, a girl with a B. Ed. degree is the most attractive in the marriage market. During the course of our data collection we heard of instances where daughter in laws were being forced to take up teaching in middle or lower middle class families. In one of the B.ed. colleges we were told about a young woman who had gone into labour but her father in law insisted that she appear for her B.Ed interview before she go to the hospital. In laws seems to love ‘teacher’ daughter in laws because while they earn an additional income they are also conveniently available to do all the household jobs.
- Teacher morale in Government schools and colleges is very low. While the pay is good, there are few or no incentives for performing better or working harder. Moreover there is political interference that leaves teachers at the mercy of middlemen and MLA’s / MPs who seldom have respect for teachers and often treat their transfers as a means of making money.
Our ancient texts give ‘guru’ the highest position, putting a guru even before god. Sadly, but in the harsh modern world apart from a few elite institutions this is no longer the case. The profession has been mired – on the inside by teachers who do not really do justice to their work and on the outside by materialistic culture that puts money and power above everything else, even a ‘guru’.
There is an urgent need to correct this situation. A teacher who does not find dignity and take pride in his or her work is not going to be able to produce a generation that builds India into a superpower. Let us save our teachers, lets return them their respect, dignity and pride. Lets treat them with the reverence they truly deserve because in their hands lies our future.
PS: I also feel a bit piqued by messages and forwards that seem to suggest that all of us as mothers etc are teachers and thus the day is for all of us. I feel (maybe unjustifiably) that this attempt to widen the definition of a teacher somehow undermines what they do. All of us look after our children when they are ill do we send each other messages on Doctors day? A teacher is someone who has taken on the burden to b a guide to children who are complete strangers to him/ her. That is the beauty of it. To do this tiring, often ‘thankless’ job day in and day out for little people who are demanding/ often selfish/ and in no way related to you. Who will not in all probability bring you any extra reward or laurels, who will not take care of you when you are old and infirm , who will not take forward your family name. in short it is a labour of love. ‘Selfless’ love. Lets leave Teachers Day for them and not attempt to partake of their glory. We have our ‘Mothers days’ and ‘Fathers days’ and all the days in between
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