Who will help our teachers thrive?
Srishti Gulati
When we walk into the classroom, whether as administrators, program designers, coaches, or visitors, the teacher is the first person to capture our attention and scrutiny. Yet, in conversations in board meetings, or during pitches, design sprints, and vision setting discussions, teachers’ outcomes are not what we debate and deliberate on. Their voices are not in the rooms where decisions are made. Should that matter?
When the first ASER report came out, the indicators of the quality of education in our country were stark and irrefutable. This yearly reminder of how much our children are learning, amongst other factors, has contributed to the changed landscape of education in India. Along with central and state government interventions, we have also been witness to the expansion of the work of non-profits towards education quality. As per The India Philanthropy Spend report, philanthropic spending on education was estimated at a whopping Rs 7,155 crores in 2022.
Despite this expansion and these investments, our progress in providing quality education has been slow. Before the pandemic worsened the learning deficiencies, the 2018 ASER report indicated that only 27.2% of children in grade 3 could read at a grade 2 level. This statistic only shows us a partial picture of where our children are today. We don’t have data yet on (the now prominent and acknowledged) students’ socio-emotional learning and development of 21st century skills.
Photos courtesy: Teach For India
We are quick to frame the learning deficits in the context of teacher absenteeism and the shortage of teachers; we are after all third in global teacher absenteeism rates after Kenya and Uganda. We have tried to incentivize pay and create monitoring systems like photographs and biometrics only to see incremental results in teacher attendance. To this I would urge that maybe teaching in India is really hard.
Research on teacher absenteeism in 2005 had shown us that teachers are less likely to be absent in schools that have been inspected recently, have better infrastructure, and are closer to a paved road. This is indicative of the systemic structures that need to be in place to support teachers. We are yet to ask our teachers what they need to be able to deliver their best at this job. To continue addressing what teachers need to be in schools, it’s time we bring their voices to the table.
The role of the teacher is often celebrated in our society and is recognized for its leadership and contribution to the country. Yet, everyday teachers are handed textbooks to read and deliver lesson plans from; they are expected to keep working harder and incorporating intervention after intervention. We take away from our teachers their agency by repeatedly telling them how to do their jobs and then continue to put them at the forefront of our reforms.
Why does this matter even more today? The focus on holistic learning has gained momentum in India. Continuing to treat the teacher as a passive part of the classroom will have glaring consequences as we scale work on socio-emotional learning and 21st century skills. In pedagogical interventions towards foundational learning we focus on classroom protocols, differentiation techniques, and ready-to-use lesson plans which teachers can pick up as is to make learning more effective. Even if we dodge the question of how efficacious this has been, these same approaches cannot work for socio-emotional learning.
Recent research from Nepal highlights the crucial link between the socio-emotional wellbeing of teachers and its impact on their students. A study from New Zealand shows us the evident role of the school conditions for the wellbeing of educators as well as students. At the same time, here in India, 65% of teachers in the 2021 National Achievement Survey reported feeling overburdened. Without a psychologically safe environment for teachers that supports their wellbeing, how can we expect them to be present in the classroom to do the same for our children?
As we continue our work in building holistic education interventions, we need to involve teachers as active learners in the classroom. They have a voice that carries wisdom and that can articulate their own needs. Listening to them will open possibilities for us to work with the education system that needs transformation. When we choose to work in tandem with our teachers on the effort and time-intensive task of equipping them for a transformative education, we also set the stage for many future generations to receive such an education.
Our programs, policies, and interventions need to be equally accountable to our teachers as they are to our students. When we create enabling conditions for students to learn and thrive, we should be compelled to do the same for teachers. The teacher is not separate from the classroom, and their learning and wellbeing is not separate from that of our children. It’s time that we stop anchoring the learning deficiencies only on infrastructural and pedagogical gaps and take accountability for the working conditions of our teachers.
The author holds a Master’s in Education (Ed.M.) from Harvard University and has over 11 years of experience in the non-profit education sector. She began her work as an educator with the Teach for India Fellowship in 2014 and has since worked in leadership, program design, and monitoring and evaluation, driving impactful educational initiatives through strategic, data-driven, and inclusive approaches. She can be reached on sgulati@gse.harvard.edu.
