Teaching is considered a noble profession, but unfortunately in Kashmir, this dictum connotes a different interpretation. A teacher lays the foundation of a healthy society and ironically the same society looks down upon him/her in Kashmir and makes them feel unhealthy. I am talking about private school teachers. Due to the huge unemployment in Kashmir, a lot of highly qualified persons find no other way and land up in private schools. These private schools although having good financial strength; it is always a teacher who finds himself/herself at the receiving end. Are we really serious about the future of our children? The answer is a big no, as the person who is entitled to make the future of our child is underpaid. A daily wager earns fifteen thousand rupees per month and our private school teacher hardly manages to get eight thousand rupees. This presents a gloomy picture before us. They work tirelessly from dawn to dusk with an aim to inculcate the best among our children. They are never off their duties. Even at home, they work and plan for the betterment of the students. Like others, they have families, children, parents and other responsibilities to shoulder. Why are we ignoring this? They are the most important members of our society. We cannot ignore them. Ignoring them would mean playing with the career of our children as it is the teacher who makes the future of a student.
The reason behind the success of European nations is that these countries display the utmost respect towards teachers and pay them handsome salaries. The success of any progressive nation depends upon the teachers as they shape and nurture the raw talent. Teachers are the torchbearers of any society. They fill the vacuum of our unfulfilled desires. But in this part of the world, especially in Kashmir, the genuine rights of a private teacher have been denied and exploitation of them has touched the skies.
The Kashmiri society has failed to recognise the worth of private teachers. We want our children to be doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs but the sad part of the story is we have forgotten the role played by the teachers who shape and build the future of our children. Behind every successful person, there is always a teacher who works very hard and enlightens the mind and soul of a student. Private school teachers leave no stone unturned to make the students brighter, smarter and better. Yet, they are given the meagre and paltry wages despite their unflagging and selfless services. Private teachers are the disadvantaged section of our society. They are paid peanuts in the name of salary. They hardly manage to meet their daily expenses as the prices in the market have skyrocketed. The school is just like a machine and the blood of private teachers is used as fuel to operate it.
What adds salt to the wounds of private teachers is that they are hired only to be fired anytime. They take out students from darkness to light and their employers put them in a dungeon of insecurity and darkness. Once the salary of a teacher touches Rs 10,000, the employer becomes restless and looks for ways to get rid of him/her. The feeling of insecurity runs through their veins. If we really want to save the future of our children then we need to change the financial condition of our teachers from worst to best. The government has a big role to play to alleviate the suffering of private teachers. The administration should constitute a committee. This committee should inspect the private schools and check the salary of the teaching staff in order to give this disadvantaged lot the advantage which they deserve. Besides, the government must come up with a policy for these highly qualified teachers and streamline the system in private schools so that the ship of education could be saved from sinking.
The writer can be reached at ja**************@***il.com