One day in a year, teachers are remembered and celebrated — that’s all. The rest of the year, teachers are forgotten and life goes on.
As India’s education system struggles with neglect and politicisation, the dignity, accountability and role of teachers demand urgent scrutiny
When the country’s young people, under the leadership of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), have been centre-staging the education system, Teachers’ Day 2026, at this juncture, puts the spotlight harder on one of the most crucial sections of any society and state.
Teachers’ Day greetings and declarations of gratitude for teachers by the young and old occupied social media all of Saturday. Old photos and paeans were posted to teachers, both past and present. No doubt, a lot of them were heartfelt and a lot of them deserved. One day in a year, teachers are remembered and celebrated — that’s all. The rest of the year, teachers are forgotten and life goes on. This reduces the dignity of the teaching profession, thus negatively impacting the education system.
A very long time ago, society held the teacher in very high regard. In fact, the teacher was one of the central figures who held communities, society and the nation together. They inspired and led communities and society to a higher plane in community life, which ascended right up to the nation. The teacher was not only respected as the repository of knowledge and wisdom but also acknowledged as the moral voice, the moral compass and the conscience keeper of the community. That was a time when a teacher was chosen for their integrity, knowledge, wisdom and aptitude, not merely for degrees and diplomas. Society evolved and priorities changed; consequently, the teacher was pushed off the centre of community life and forced to exist peripherally as a mere tutor to impart the basic learning of the 3 Rs.
As a corollary, the quality of community life declined and the quality of education depreciated. If today India faces the highest unemployment rate ever, we also face one of the highest rates of unemployables. This means that if the qualities and aptitudes of teachers are compromised, the quality of education is compromised, resulting in an untrained, untrainable and inept workforce. This underscores the crippling and derailing of the political, economic, social and cultural systems of a nation. Only the educated, under the guidance of a learned teacher, can salvage this situation.
But because the community, the society, has marginalised and peripheralised the teacher and replaced them with tuition, with the mistaken goal of children obtaining more marks and higher grades, not only has the quality of education suffered, but the quality of national life has also suffered. There is, after all, more to education than mere marks and grades. The commercialisation of education extracts a very heavy price, which the nation pays for decades, and this price reflects on all aspects of national life. Over the decades, numerous training programmes and courses for teachers were introduced, and much weightage was given to degrees. Besides, numerous rules were imposed on teachers so as to improve students’ learning capabilities, but the results remain unsatisfactory.
So, where do the fault lines lie? Is it the policies or the system or the teachers? Is it those who make the policies and design training programmes and courses for teachers? Is it the ideological leanings that are allowed to dictate and decide the contents and objectives of education? Is it the structuring of an education policy that seeks to create a nation that fits into a dominant majoritarian ideological vision? Is it some very sinister ploy to keep children ignorant and uneducated and turn them into a mindless herd to derail their destiny for narrow, inimical ambitions? Whatever it is, a young population denied and deprived of quality education will backfire on the nation — especially at this age and time when technology has opened the windows to the world.
So, I am not quite sure whether saluting teachers on one day of the year is a celebration of teachers or simply another occasion to light up the internet, because for the rest of the year nobody really cares how teachers survive on salaries not commensurate with the dignity and status they deserve, harsh working conditions, and being socially disrespected and discounted as the most crucial moulders and shapers of the future.
But there is also the other side of the coin. Over the decades, the teacher’s post has been reduced to a stepping stone and/or a stop-gap arrangement for better employment opportunities. A teacher’s post has become the personal fiefdom of unscrupulous politicians, bureaucrats and public leaders to distribute among their supporters, friends and relatives. A teacher’s post is used as leverage to control the community and society. A teacher’s post is the least priority of policymakers and cultural leaders. So public schools, colleges and universities are converted into power centres, in which student wings of political parties become the bullies and enforcers of political ideologies. Because most teachers today are hired on political considerations and calculations, not for merit, these teachers are not really teachers but party workers; hence, the quality of education is degraded.
Even a cursory look at the demands of government school students across the country that have recently gained much traction, especially on social media — such as fans, toilets, running water, benches, labs, as well as absent teachers, etc. — shows the utter neglect of school boards and the indifference of teachers. Consequently, there are poor results in public schools in board examinations and poor learning abilities. One of the most telling traits of a teacher is courage, but as we can see, very few teachers have had the gumption to protect their students by reporting the school’s conditions and exposing the dysfunctional school. Recently, after a fact-finding tour of a public school in Rajasthan, photos of which went viral on social media, the entire school was demolished and funds were allotted to rebuild the school building. Why didn’t the school authorities or even one teacher report the school’s abysmal condition to the concerned authorities? When school authorities, including teachers, have no courage, do they deserve any respect? Do they have the moral right to call themselves educators?
Reports indicate that children have very low reading abilities. While it is an increasing phenomenon across the globe — a major cause believed to be technological advances — the fact is that, as much as children emulate their parents, they also emulate their teachers. It would be interesting if a survey were conducted on the number of books, both related and unrelated to the subject taught, teachers read in a year. If teachers don’t read, students will not read. If the school doesn’t allocate reading classes or dedicated time for reading, students will not read. If the school doesn’t focus on a well-stocked library, students will not read. But perhaps, first, a reading test should be conducted for teachers because reading is the foundational step towards understanding and learning the subject. The quality of teaching, consequently, the quality of learning — either way — is the outcome.
No society, no nation can flourish without conscientious and erudite teachers. Such teachers deserve Teachers’ Day every day of the year. As for the rest, their employment must be reviewed because they degrade the profession and are the weakest links in our education system.
(Monalisa Changkija is a Dimapur-based veteran journalist, poet, and former Proprietor, Publisher, and Editor of Nagaland Page. Published in the September 6, 2026 issue of North East Now)