What Ho! Ah! To live with a What Ho on my lips and a Gentleman's Gentleman… {sigh}… Such is life…

Gross Income of a Teacher vs a Call Center Agent

Source: Data Source: Prices and Earnings 2009, UBS

Not only are Indian Teachers the worst paid but the students they teach end up earning more than them by working as call center agents which is definitely the low end of the job spectrum.

Think about this for a moment. How does a Teacher’s job compare with that of a Call Center Agent? It is more difficult. It requires far greater intellectual knowledge & skill. It requires patience far beyond anything a call center agent is called upon to demonstrate.

And most importantly, for society’s point of view, a Teacher’s job is as critical as that of parents. For they help shape the future. They have the, albeit divided, attention of their young charges for up to 8 hours a day. In most cases the child spends more time per day in direct interaction with her teachers than with her parents.

So how come we reward our call center jockeys better than our teachers? And this in a nation where every school going child sings the following Sanskrit Sloka:

Guru Brahma,

Guru Vishnu,

Gurudeva Maheswara

Guru Sakshat Param Brahma

Tashmaishee Gurudeva Namaha

Translated that says:

Brahma, the Creator, is my Guru / Teacher

Vishnu, the Preserver, is my Guru/ Teacher

Shiva or Maheswara, the Destroyer, is my Guru/ Teacher

And my Guru / Teacher, is in effect / in reality / an embodiment of, The Supreme Lord Brahma

My salutations to you Gurudeva

Strange isn’t it? The land that says it reveres  teachers and places them a pedestal does not pay them enough. The average school teacher is female, with a Bachelor’s degree in the Arts or Science and a BEd. They work 8 hrs a day for a pittance. And most of the time they are not the primary bread earner of the family. I shudder to think how anybody can run a family on what our teachers are paid.

Remaining focused on your job when you are paid little more than the shop assistant is difficult. Particularly when the economic growth of the last decade has caught up everybody else and taken them on a merry go around of malls, restaurants, and vacations to exotic locations. When does the consumer rule? When the consumer has money to pay the producer and wants to do so. The want is obviously there but the means is not. How then do you expect our Teachers to stay on the “moral high ground” and slog away at building all the future generations to come?

For my part I do what I can – I write about it as I am doing now and I pay the teachers I meet the highest respect I can, the same respect that I give to my parents and to no other.

Remember!

Guru Sakshat Param Brahma

Tashmaishee Gurudeva Namaha