Curriculum revisions have blurred the vision

BY the government's own estimates, India requires an additional 10 lakh teachers, with nearly four lakh vacancies at the elementary level alone. With political will and administrative resolve, such recruitment could be achieved within a year. The systemic apathy towards the teaching profession persists despite India being a signatory to numerous Sustainable Development Goals.

Teacher recruitment and teacher education programmes have been mired in neglect over the past decade. The constant experimentation with one-, two- and four-year teacher education programmes, often dictated by the whims of policymakers, has generated confusion rather than clarity regarding the pathways to becoming a qualified teacher. The frequency and rapidity of these curricula revisions have blurred the vision of what constitutes a teacher and what professional competencies the role demands.

Equally disquieting are the conditions of service and remuneration. Salaries vary significantly, depending on the nature of the appointment and the type of school management. In flagship government programmes, such as the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, contractual teachers receive monthly salaries of Rs 18,000 in Bihar and Rs 25,000 in Tamil Nadu. These figures are lower than the government-prescribed minimum daily wage for semi-skilled labourers and, in some contexts, half the wages of highly skilled labourers.

Furthermore, 69 per cent of private school teachers and 14 per cent of government school teachers are employed on contractual terms, leaving them devoid of job security and financial stability. Prolonged delays in recruitment processes and the acute infrastructural deficits in rural schools further render teaching an unattractive career choice, dissuading talented individuals from entering the profession.

Initiatives such as the National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) and the mandatory 50 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) annually risk compounding the challenges. Rather than strengthening the profession, they often add bureaucratic burdens that undermine a teacher’s autonomy and morale.

Without structural reorientation, teachers will remain relegated to being subservient employees, compelled to comply with the ideological dictates of their superiors.

Being a teacher in the 21st century is already a formidable task. In the post-modern era, teachers are equated with search engines or AI tools. While digital technologies may provide access to information, they cannot replace the transformative presence of a teacher. What remains indispensable is the teacher as an informed being, one who inspires learners and animates the process of being and becoming. Without investing in this human capacity, India risks fostering a nation of classrooms without teachers, and, consequently, a nation without direction.

Views are personal.

Navneet Sharma is Assistant Professor, Central University of HP.