26 May,2026 08:48 AM IST | Mumbai | Rahul Chandawarkar
Teaching requires patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and emotional connection with students. Representation Pic/iStock
Two decades ago, when I chose teaching as a profession, I had only one dream - to shape young minds and touch countless lives so that society could have a brighter and better future. I entered this profession with passion, dedication, and the belief that education has the power to transform lives.
As years passed, the role of teachers gradually began to change. Today, like so many other teachers, I stand at a juncture where I am burdened with numerous government duties apart from teaching. Census duty, election work, SIR data collection, administrative tasks, online entries, and endless paperwork have become a major part of a teacher's life. While these duties are important for the nation's functioning, they consume valuable time and energy that teachers need to ideally devote to students.
What makes the situation extremely challenging is the extreme summer heat in which these duties are carried out. Every day, government announcements on television repeatedly advise citizens not to step out of their homes during peak afternoon hours. Ironically, teachers are expected to travel from place to place and go door to door conducting census work, during that very same scorching heat.
Under the blazing sun, teachers walk through crowded lanes, climb buildings, carry heavy files and devices and continue their work while sweating, exhausted, and irritated due to the unbearable heat. Many do not even get proper drinking water, a place to sit, or time to rest. Yet they continue their duty sincerely because they understand its importance for the nation.
The saddest part is that somewhere in this endless cycle of duties, the true purpose of teaching begins to fade.
I ask the nation, where are we all heading? What about the education?
When the new academic year begins, these very teachers will return to classrooms already tired, exhausted, and mentally drained from months of continuous field duties in extreme heat. Can we truly expect them to perform their responsibilities with the same energy, creativity, and emotional strength that teaching demands?
A teacher is not a machine. Teaching requires patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and emotional connection with students. A physically exhausted teacher cannot give a hundred per cent in the classroom, no matter how sincere or dedicated. When teachers suffer, somewhere silently, the quality of education suffers too.
It is time for society and authorities to understand that respecting teachers does not only mean celebrating them on one special day. True respect lies in protecting their dignity, valuing their time, caring for their health, and allowing them to focus on their real purpose, which is shaping the future generation.
The columnist has been a teacher for two decades and is currently teaching in a Borivli school.
