System And Society Has Failed Indian Teachers While Aspiring To Be A Vishva Guru

Sujit Kumar
Economist and Banker

I recently came across a job advertisement for English teacher in a high school of Varanasi. It offered Rs 7000 per month salary for full-time teaching position.  A high school teacher in private sector school being paid lesser than minimum wages notified by law for unskilled labour. The school offers to pay 2/3rd of what is notified as minimum wages for unskilled labour. It is not an outlier, but a usual occurrence Pan India-- a deeply disturbing reality of modern India.

No nation can achieve greatness where teaching is valued below menial labour. What explains this sorry state of education sector? Economists will say it's simple play of demand-supply. Oversupply of teachers comes as lazy answer to mind. There are too many graduates chasing too few jobs, thus reducing the pay.

I think there are two aspects to the oversupply. One is fewer job alternatives with economy absorbing lesser jobseekers than joining the workforce. Second is lack of effective remuneration support. There's minimum wage notified by law. How could employers dare to pay below that and state looks away?

I am all for private sector in education but not for public sector abdicating it's responsibility of standard setting, and ensuring fair play. Education sector, though underappreciated, is increasingly becoming a case of market with asymmetric information for participants.

One wonders how many of Indian parents can evaluate the worth of schooling for their kids. Learning outcomes of school hours don't inspire at all. As per Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2018, published by Pratham, an education non-profit organisation, only half (50.3%) of all students in Class V can read texts meant for Class II students. It's not that private schools deliver better learning outcomes. The ASER 2018 showed that while 40% of Class VIII students in government schools could do simple division, the figure was 54.2% in private schools. About one third of all students in 6-14 age group are enrolled in private sector schools. This is the state of economically better off kids; their parents could afford high fees for better future of the kid. Education is not cheap in private sector, only teachers are available cheap.

You get what you pay for. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Such is the quality of people choosing education sector that it's common to hear, "those who can't make it to anything, end up teaching". Current state of education sector is somewhat similar to farm sector, where middle men profit at the expense of both producers and consumers.

One wonders about why educated person not able to fight for wages s/he should get by law ! Asymmetric bargaining power of teachers vs the owners of private schools is to blame. Teachers are not organised enough to negotiate with employers. Contract hiring may well have contributed most to this weakening of bargaining power.

More pertinent is apathy of community where the schools work. In the race for commoditisation of education, community has forgotten it's primary responsibility of being a guardian of children's future. Those who achieved success, educational or professional, distanced themselves away from managing affairs of community. We rather prefer, though grudgingly, to pay taxes and blame Government for not doing its job. Our apathy is perpetuating the moral decline of community.

But where are the avowed communists of the world? Sorry, they are busy dreaming revolution and the rule of proletariat!