Teachers are an essential part of our education system but are the ones who are most burdened with admin work, large class load and portion completion; least supported, they do not have any back-up, are exposed to low flexibility, and have minimal resources. Most importantly, they are the least celebrated and get low salaries.
Govt of Maharashtra spends almost Rs 60 thousand crore per annum on education. But still, government schools suffer from a low image.
Here are the stories of two teachers who couldn't give their best in the classroom because of unrelated work.
Manisha madam is a teacher in a govt school. She faces many challenges in delivering primary education.
Overdose of teaching programs
multiple stakeholders, Multiple programs & reporting – Amrit Mahotsav, PM Birthday, Tree plantation, contests etc.., Multiple visitors
Work Unrelated to teaching
Aadhar card, Caste Certificate for students, Maintaining Voter list, Panchnama, Support community events, Book distribution etc.
Admin and Paperwork
Mid-day meal, Book and uniform distribution, Infrastructure, Social categories of students, Attendance allowance etc.; the same data was asked for many times, differently - then audited; Data was asked for multiple years - sometimes through the system & sometimes on paper.
Lack of Focus → Leads to → Lack of Motivation
Isolated and burdened - Teachers are the fall guys; Loses in student
enrolments are blamed on teachers. There are very high expectations;
teachers are expected to have high skills and moral values and be role models for students. There is a minimal upside.
Saima madam is a teacher in a low-income school in
Mumbai slums. The challenges teacher face here is very different.
Reluctant Teacher
Salaries are very low, Rs 8-15 the pm. Girls are not allowed to travel for work. No, leave policy. Who wants to be a teacher?
Overworked
A large number of classes + doubling up for absentee teachers/ shortfall; 70+ students in a class. Exams, Fees Collection, Book distribution, Sports day, calling parents, Door to Door survey for admission etc.
Undertrained
Most teachers are graduates with no teacher training. It is challenging to find experienced/ trained teachers in the community.
-Under-resourced Environment + Lack of Motivation
-Poorly paid and burdened with work- it takes work to carry your motivation daily.
Despite the hype about technology advancements, AI/VR, policy decisions in NEP 2020 and other initiatives, challenges continue to exist for Manisha madam and others-
Discouraged Community
Deficient Infra/ Low resources
Fragile government support
There are many such cases where teachers have to put their efforts and time into irrelevant things; thus, their focus on student development is sometimes lowered. We are changing this scenario with the help of the Vinoba app, which encourages teachers, supports them, and strives to increase teacher engagement. To get ready for a 35-minute class, a lot of planning and work is required of the teachers. To give students a positive learning experience, a variety of content is needed, including lesson plans, worksheets, case studies, films, and experiments. To make the learning relevant, it must be integrated with the local context as well as the current context. It must provide material for both students who are ahead of the class and those who are falling behind. The teacher must use some of the material, while other portions must be distributed to the students as assignments or PowerPoint presentations.
For Board of Secondary Education Class 1–10th, tickLinks contains over 9,500 excellent lesson plans for teachers that span Math, EVS, Science, and SST. Using the NCERT recommendations, tickLinks offers lesson plans for the Central Board of Secondary Education. There is a Hindi version of these plans as well. With a coordinated educational program and resources, tickLinks assists teachers in providing students with explicit learning objectives. Their preparation time for the class is cut down, and the lessons are more effective. We concentrate on meeting the teacher's needs by speeding up class preparation and enhancing learning.