Guru’s plight: Low pay, high pressure & burnout in classrooms

Bengaluru

Failing an examination can leave a student demotivated, especially after a stern lecture from a teacher. But behind that reprimand may be a teacher who feels equally disheartened - constantly trying different strategies to help the student improve, often while being underpaid, overworked and underappreciated. In India, teachers have traditionally been revered as ‘gurus’, with ancient scriptures placing them among the most respected figures in society.

Yet, the profession today is often undervalued compared with high-paying careers in law, medicine, engineering, and even IT and AI. Despite being the ones who educate and shape professionals across these fields, teachers continue to face low pay and diminishing social recognition. “As pre-primary teachers, we are very badly looked down upon by parents, as they think they are paying us only to take care of their children through out the day.

They do not understand that these initial years of a child’s life are very important, and that the teacher is the person moulding and shaping the child’s future”, said Vijaya Chitra, who has been in the teaching profession for 32 years. She said parents and society must respect the fact that teachers are doing their best to help students become better people and responsible citizens. “People need to understand the importance of educa- tion and the teacher who is the facilitator of that education, working to enlighten students,” she said.

Chitra added that apart from the profession being looked down upon, teachers are Teachers’ Day also severely underpaid considering the impact they have on children’s lives and society. “In this era, where students have low attention spans and find it hard to be disciplined with their time, health and sleep, teachers’ roles have changed from being facilitators of learning to becoming kind of ‘performers’. We need to hook students into a lesson and keep them constantly engaged through activities, discussions, etc., because we are competing for their attention with reels and screens,” said Joel M. Jacob, Assistant Professor at a university in Bengaluru.

He added that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has caused students to become lazy when it comes to develop ing their own critical thinking and even writing skills. “There are fewer and fewer students who can write originally anymore”, he said. He further noted that AI has also slowly, seemingly, taken the place of teachers in the role of mentoring. “One of the reasons a lot of us teachers entered the profession was to be able to guide some students with their careers, life, etc. I’ve seen fewer students come to us seeking our advice or mentorship.

I don’t know what the reason is. Maybe they feel we don’t relate to them anymore? Or AI is answering their queries? just something I’ve observed”, he said. Prof. Joel highlighted that teachers are always under pressure to work all the time. “We need to document everything we do, we need to produce results, show impact, constantly update ourselves, and publish research. So there is always the pressure to perform better. While I un- derstand why, it also takes a toll on teachers’ physical and mental health”, he said.

As educators navigate changing curriculum, evolving technology and increasingly demanding classrooms while striving to make a meaningful im pact on every student, the profession continues to grapple with a fundamental contradiction - teachers are expected to do more, adapt faster and deliver greater results, yet they remain severely underpaid and burnt out in the process.

“If teachers are expected to prepare children for an increasingly complex world, they deserve the resources, professional development, authority, financial security and respect needed to do that job well. We often speak about building a better future for our children. Perhaps one of the most important ways to do that is to ensure that the people entrusted with that future - our teachers- are valued just as much as the work they do”, said Hemavathi LK, another teacher.