Good we respect teachers. Maybe our children can learn.

Over 54% of Indian parents would encourage their children to become teachers, a study has found. Compared to 23% of British people and a low of 6% in Russia. 77% of Indians believe that pupils respect their teachers and awarded a rating of 7.11 to the education system. Which is puzzling because most studies show that children are learning very little in government schools and a lot attend school only to avail of the midday meal scheme. The 7th Pay Commission increased salaries for teachers so that a primary school teacher earns on average about Rs 200,000 per year, which is below the income tax threshold of Rs 250,000 per year. A lot of the time is spent on supervising midday meals which not only draw children to school but also ensure that children get balanced nutrition at least once a day. Even though various High Courts have opined that teachers should not be wasting their time in supervising meals the practice continues. Naturally, even poor parents prefer to send their children to private schools. Pandering to the vote bank the government passed the Right to Education Act in 2009 which forces private schools to reserve 25% of their intake for poor students. The Act stopped exams in schools so that children would not be failed. This meant that teachers had no incentive to teach as there was no way to judge how much children were learning. The alarming drop in standards has resulted in a return of exams for classes V-VIII from next year. The preference for private schools is so widespread that the government of Karnataka issued a letter to all government teachers to recruit more students to their schools or they would be assigned other duties. Parental earning has a big influence on how many children attend schools. While 78% of the poorest 20% of children attended primary school the number dropped sharply to 39% in secondary school and a non-existent 6% continued education after higher secondary. For the richest 20% of children, 89% attended primary school, 70% attended secondary school and only about 30% continued education after leaving school. Surprising, because we expect all children of richer parents to attend college. Sadly, 94% of engineering graduates are not fit for employment. No wonder candidates with college degrees applied for jobs as drivers for the Gujarat High Court. So why is there so much respect for teachers and our education system. Maybe because the enormous inequality of wealth is visible and the only way to get out of poverty is to have a good education. If some people have succeeded from this system maybe there is hope for others. Sadly, we are failing our children.