Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan dedicated his life to teaching, serving in various roles, including president, educationalist, academic, and leader. He requested that his birthday not be observed as a personal celebration, but instead be dedicated to honouring the country's teachers. The tradition began in 1962, when the Government of India declared Dr Radhakrishnan's birth anniversary as Teachers' Day.

Each year, as India celebrates Teachers' Day with fanfare, glorifying this noble profession with expressions of gratitude, I simply wonder why this admiration wanes for the rest of the year. Poet Kabir narrated the importance of teachers in his couplet: "Guru and God both are here to whom should I first bow? All glory be unto the guru, path to God who did bestow."

Unfortunately, these gurus have become the scapegoats for all the lacunae that our education system is plagued with. This raises an important question: why are teachers not respected in India, and what daily battles do they wage for survival, regardless of whether they work in a government school or an "international" school?

Yasmeen Hossain, a teacher, lists certain major problems and challenges faced by Indian teachers in the classroom and outside:
1.    Teaching is not considered one of the most sought-after careers in India. This stems from the general perception that people harbour about this profession, which is that anyone can become a teacher, as it requires minimal skill and is nothing but a glorified babysitting job.
2.    Teaching is one of the most underpaid jobs, except in some schools that strictly adhere to Pay Commission scales. Even appreciation in the form of a financial incentive is not a very popular practice. These problems are not restricted to government or low-cost private schools, but also affect posh international schools, where the average annual fee for a student ranges from 6 to 10 lakhs. The school management and board of directors mostly prefer cheap labour.
3.    The biggest irony lies in the fact that these schools celebrate Women's Day with great pomp and splendour, even though more than 90% of the women workforce in these schools are financially dependent on their husbands for expenditure like car loans, education loans, etc, as their salary is almost one-tenth of what their husbands earn in an MNC.
4.    The general Indian mentality believes that privatisation is the solution to everything dysfunctional in our country. This public perception stems from the status that an Indian family enjoys when they send their children to these 'Modern temples of education,' which feature air-conditioned classrooms, buses, and infrastructure equivalent to a five-star resort, including tennis courts and swimming pools.
5.    Most of these elite private schools are established by real estate developers or politicians who have little understanding of education. For them, education is nothing but a means to amass a huge fortune.
6.    Teachers often lack a voice and have no say in educational policy. The concept of a motivated teacher is also flawed because most of them believe that a motivated teacher is regular to school every day, follows official protocols blindly without questioning, and, if necessary, provides information that the management team wants. The real focus shifts from student learning outcomes to complying with orders as deemed fit by the administrative department, relegating teachers to a mere status of puppets with no voice.
7.    Following the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE), which many private schools have not wholeheartedly adopted, classrooms have become more diverse. Teachers often lack the skills to manage such diversity in the classroom. Training programmes are designed with a view to the situation existing in urban schools and the problems faced by teachers, such as a high teacher-student ratio or multi-grade teaching, which are hardly discussed.
8.    Teaching can be demoralising for many reasons — demotivated students, helicopter parents, disorganised administration, a lack of financial incentive, and a lack of prestige in our society for teachers, among others. Add to that the fact that most teachers return home and spend their quality personal time and weekends marking notebooks, planning lessons, and grading answer scripts, etc. This means that by the end of the day, a teacher is mentally and physically exhausted, leaving them with neither the time to pursue a hobby nor the time to socialise with friends or to recharge.
A teacher is expected to project a 'perfect teacher' image. They are required to epitomise calmness and behave like conservative moral police. Society places immense pressure on teachers, as if their every decision, act, and word can inspire or devastate students. If a student fails, it is the teacher's fault. If a student succeeds, then it is the achievement of the student alone. Teachers shoulder all the responsibility but often receive little recognition or appreciation for their students' accomplishments.

In education, a teacher has a crucial role in moulding the character of a student. Through a story, let us try to understand this. "Once upon a time, while walking through the forest, a certain man found a young eagle. He took it home and put it in his poultry farm. The eagle soon learned to eat chicken feed and to behave as chickens behave.

One day, a naturalist who was passing by the poultry farm noticed a young eagle inside. He asked the owner why the eagle, the king of the birds, should be confined to live in a poultry farm with chickens. The poultry farm owner said, "I thought that this bird was a chicken. Since I have given it chicken feed and it lives inside the farm, it has never learnt to fly. The naturalist said, "Still, this bird has the heart of an eagle, and it can surely be taught to fly." They discussed this matter and agreed to find out whether this was possible.

Standing near the poultry farm, the naturalist gently took the eagle in his hands and said, "You belong to the sky, not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The bird was confused. It did not know what to do. It jumped down to be with the other chickens. The next day, the naturalist took the eagle to the terrace of the poultry farm and urged the bird, "You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle was afraid and did not know about its unknown self. The confused bird jumped down again, joined the chickens, and started eating the chicken feed.

On the third day, the naturalist rose early in the morning when it was still dark. He took the eagle and climbed on the nearby mountain. By this time, the sun had started rising. He held the eagle straight towards the sun and encouraged it by saying, "You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly. The eagle looked around for some time and started to tremble with fear. The naturalist said loudly, "You are an eagle. You are the king of the birds. You stretch forth your wings and fly." Suddenly, with a big cry, the eagle flew away into the sky. It may be that the eagle still remembers the poultry farm, the chickens and the chicken feed. But the eagle never returned to the poultry farm to live there."

We need to put a teacher in the place of the naturalist and the student in the place of the eagle. In today's education system, students are often confined to a school environment that resembles a poultry farm, where they are rarely taught to understand their potential, skills, talents, and abilities. Their true self remain unknown. A teacher has to assume the role of the naturalist and must
1.    Recognise and respect the individuality of students
2.    Be available, accessible and approachable
3.    Have love for nature
4.    Have love and compassion for students
5.    Dialogue with students and parents
6.    Demonstrate assertiveness
7.    Set a high target for students and continue to motivate them
8.    Have self-confidence and place confidence in the students
9.    Be open, honest and fair in every dealing
10.    Do continuous experiments and work hard
11.    Create a conducive atmosphere for growth
12.    Give encouragement and recognition to every student
13.    Act consistently
14.    Give the needed information to students to do their jobs
15.    Impart training effectively
16.    Accept mistakes and initiate corrective measures
17.    Keep focused through proper follow-ups
18.    Take up risks and challenges
19.    Make sacrifices to achieve the goal
20.    Display tolerance and flexibility
21.    Take ownership of students' decisions
22.    Have a clear vision and dream for the students

The former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, said, "Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, calibre, and future of an individual." May the teachers in our society understand this truth and take pride in their noble profession of character building. Let the teachers exercise this role with greater responsibility!