By Suchi Shah
Most of us would have pretended to be a teacher while playing ‘teacher- teacher’ in the summer vacations during our childhood. But as adults, how many of us would have turned that play into our profession? How many of us even regard it as a profession? It is disheartening to know that in today’s times teaching is not considered to be a career choice, let alone being a sought after one. It is often viewed as a part-time “activity” and not a premium career option.
Remarks like, “If you are married and cannot handle the rigorous, long working hours corporate jobs then take up something easier like teaching,” are often made rather casually. This highlights the prevalent belief that teaching is an easy job with low demands which is completely contradictory to what the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) report has to say. According to this report, teachers are bound to incur greater job-related stress in comparison to other professionals. This is because teachers have to continuously strive to unlearn, learn and relearn to remain relevant; they have to develop new skills of classroom delivery and possess sound knowledge of e-learning platforms. Most importantly, they have to redefine their role as a facilitator and an enabler of learning.
Teaching, therefore, is far from being a comfortable and cushy career. There are a number of countries like Finland, for instance, where it is more difficult to become a teacher than it is to become a doctor or a lawyer.
The global education ranking, Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessed 74 countries in 2009, out of which India was ranked 72nd and 73rd on different parameters. While Indian students have tremendous potential, they do not have the system, resources or education policies that are able to fully harness this potential. The most important step that needs to be taken at the macro level in our country is to position teaching as an attractive option. This is possible when some major concerns – like low salary and unfavorable working conditions – are addressed on an urgent basis. Only then can an archaic mindset towards teaching can be changed.
Neev Shikshan Sanstha is relentlessly working towards bringing about a paradigm shift in the way teachers and the teaching profession is perceived. We nurture and support teachers by conducting frequent workshops for them and being vocal of our appreciation of their contribution. We continuously inculcate in them the mindset to adopt democratic and not authoritative teaching practices to make learning an enjoyable experience rather than a fearful one . Our efforts shall be to give teaching an esteemed place as an employment option because teachers are the builders of the future and deserve all the respect and support that we can extend.
