If statistics are to be believed, the number of people registered for Times of India’s Teach India movement is much higher than actual vacancies that the related NGOs have. They are all volunteers (and therefore without any pay) who would be teaching at least for three months at a place suitable for them and the linked NGO. This response is really encouraging and shows that teaching is not something that youth of the nation abhors. But how about teaching as a profession? Why is it that teaching has failed to become a dream job for most of young people in India? Among others, this talent crunch is acute in management and technology sectors. The newly set up IITs would have to face the real music due to non availability of qualified faculty members. The “noble profession” tag no longer holds much water and it is high time we reflected seriously on making teaching an attractive profession. Can some of the following measures help?

a. Improve the quality of teacher’s life: For this to happen a thicker salary package is must. Teachers should never feel inferior to other professionals in terms of income.

b. Scope for Building Capability: Capability can never be a final product. Teachers should be given enough opportunity to further build their capability.

c. Break the monotony: Monotony is a complain that I hear from most of my teacher friends. Just because some one enjoys teaching should not lead us to assume that he or she requires no recreation and other material pleasures.

d. Treat them as humans: Teachers, in Indian tradition, are often elevated to some kind of a spiritual figure. This, I strongly feel, puts lots of unnecessary burden on a teacher’s life. Let’s treat them as humans with all basic entitlements.

e. No negative publicity please: Out of their frustration, teachers often resort to making negative publicity of their own profession in front of impressionable young minds. While their complains are often genuine, they should be brought to the right platform for deliberation.