A teacher today has following problems to deal with:
Work-Life Imbalance - The teachers don’t have as much time as is always credited to their daily schedule by everyone. In fact, the teachers working in any school whose name has a ‘convent’, an ‘international’,a saint’s name , the term ‘holy’ or ‘modern’ or any of their synonyms have as little a time in hand as their female counterparts in corporate jobs or other professions. No time at hand? Am I kidding? No, I am not. Yes, they come home comparatively earlier but the chances of them making way to home after 1-2 hours of extra work at school are very high. If you see them returning home at regular job hours, check their bags. You’ll find-bundles of notebooks/papers.Don’t forget the lesser salaries.
Labourers in Sarees-But they sleep in the afternoon?Yes, most of them do. That is because they mostly work in a Non-AC environment,going up and down several flights of stairs, running from one humid classroom to another, shouting their throats out at the pampered kids you can’t stand for more than half an hour, doing the arduous task of disciplining them, keeping their records and a lot more.
Dealing with the brats-Coming to the children, they don’t have to be- hit, shouted at, threatened, looked at in anger, made to stand for a very long time, discriminated against by sending them out of the class,called ‘stupid’, ‘idiot’, ‘mad’ and synonyms even when they refuse to obey you downright, talk rubbish in the class, through tantrums, argue back, tell you that their parents can complain about you to the principal, refuse to listen to any instructions whatsoever. So, while you swear by your bosses, vent out by using cuss words, say f*** you, deep s*** and oh-so-relieving other alike phrases, the best we can do is deep breathing.
Extra-Curricular Drama: Children go for yoga, home science, language training, vocabulary classes, games, arts and crafts, foreign language classes, dance and a lot more other than their regular subject periods. The same children excel everywhere in the name of variety, the outcome of which for parents is ridiculously high fee and for teachers…well…guess yourself.
Free Periods Illusion-The teachers on an average have 3 free periods in which they have to do checking, co-ordinate with other teachers,call parents , maintain class records, prepare children for events and competitions, counsel those who need counselling, class decoration etc. While you relax over tea/coffee, teachers are busy getting themselves tired to the core.
Fancy Terms Syndrome- Ever heard of a teacher who is a ‘House Mistress’, a ‘Compiler’, a ‘Speaker’, a ‘Coordinator’. These are terms under which a teacher is overburdened with work and expected to be available for the school 24*7.
Those dreaded days- Then they have those days of the month I mean the PTMs (Parents-Teacher Meeting). These are the days when they wear best of their sarees and sit down to talk…errr…note complaints. From bad grades to lack of interest in a particular subject, from under-confident children to over-confident children, from preference of junk food to more hours watching TV, from aggression to hyperactivity, from parents’ divorces to other personal problems, from seat problems to bus/van problems to problems with other teachers to well…I think you got the idea; The teachers are expected to solve each of them. The equation on an average basis is:
One child=Two complaints (minimum)
One teacher meets = 100 parents (minimum)
So, 1 teacher=200 complaints (not to forget, minimum).
Time to solve = one month as per the parents.
Time in hand = -100 hours.
Result = A teacher is screwed.
· All right in the paradise compulsion: Despite all the above mentioned evident troubles the teachers somehow are trained to pretend everything is perfect and under control. So, while in offices you bitch about the bosses,here you are very likely to hear phrases like “All in the interest of the school”, “the most responsible profession”, “our children”, “part of our job”. In reality as you might have guessed they care less for it than the cow dung.
Note: The purpose of this article is to evoke some sympathy and respect for the teachers,not because of “builders of the nation” bullshit but because they are working harder these days than anytime before.
