Continuing with the previous discussion about school teachers, I went again and again to the school, had a word with the teachers and even got a chance for going to one of the teachers house, who lived the nearest to the school.
Another set of interaction with the school teachers revealed several interesting things about the culture of school teachers and the real motivation factors behind them, choosing this profession over other professions.
General information
The primary school teachers are under deputation from the government of Gujarat and are under the zila panchayat of the zila that they belong, or start their teaching. Since, Kudasan is under gandhinagar zila, the teachers are a subject of this zila. The first posting is given by the government, and after 1.5-2 years they get an option of either staying in the same school or going to any other school in the same zila. As of now, only two teachers belong to Kudasan village, while the rest of the teachers belong to various other part of gandhinagar, including the main city. The promotions are done on the basis of seniority, and very senior teachers can become principals as well.
Everyday life
Everyday life of a school teacher is no different from a normal working professional. Their day begins in the morning with all the mundane household work like cooking, cleaning and taking care of the members of the family. The school timings are from 10:00 am in the morning to 5:00pm in the evenings on all working days. The school teachers after finishing their household work, reach the school anywhere between 9:45 to 10:15 am, and then throughout the day, they are in the school. They go home by around 5:00 in the evening and then get back to their children and household work again. They take pride in saying that they manage to do all their household work by themselves and do not get tired in doing it. They do it willingly, and attribute this attitude of theirs to the fact that ever since they were young girls, they indulged in household work at home, so it has become a part of their daily routine. Some of them even enroll themselves in the art of living course, to cope up better with everyday stress.
Work
The school teachers enjoy their work, and they feel that their will to teach and the students are the biggest motivation factor for them to join the school as primary school teachers. Teaching at the government schools can be a tricky task for the teachers as, the main motive of the schools is to get more and more students from impoverished backgrounds to come and study in the school. As a result, the students have to handled with a lot of tact and patience, and can almost never be scolded. Infact, as a part of their duty, if a certain child in their respective class, has not come to school, then they personally have to go to the child’s house, and coax the parents to send them to school.
As Geeta ben points out: ‘ the children who come to this school as so backward, that they have to be taught basic things like personal hygiene, and sometimes they come in such a dirty condition to the school, they have to be given a bath in as well.’
Since the teachers usually do not get transferred to other government schools, and stay in the same school over a number of years, they are generally very well respected and trusted by the parents of the students.
Economic condition
As opposed to the pre-conceived idea about the primary school teachers, they actually come from relatively well to do backgrounds, and teach in the school, not for earning money, but for the pure pleasure of teaching children. Their families are well to do and hold a respectable place in the society.
Some of them have taken teaching as a part of the family traditional, and the families are generally supportive towards women from their families teaching in schools, in fact they encourage women to go out and earn their own worth.
Mindset
The teachers are generally very well informed about the current affairs, but prefer to have a very traditional outlook towards situations in general. They take pride in talking about our traditions, our way of life, and specially clothes, but give a limited outlook into the other spheres like understanding the others point of view and respecting other peoples traditions. They also emphasize on the importance of primary education in the life of the individuals, time and again to the students, to encourage them to keep on learning. Learning through television serials also forms an important part of their teaching.
Potential problem areas
The furniture for the students as well as the teachers generally remains uncomfortable, and since a large part of their day is spent on this furniture in the school, it becomes problematic in the long run.
Language is a big problem for these teachers, as throughout, they only learn in Guajarati language. They have a very limited knowledge of languages like Hindi and English, but at the same time, they teach these languages to the kids, as a result the general teaching of other languages remains redundant. They have a problem of interacting with people, who are from non Guajarati background.
They have limited or no interaction with teachers from the other zila primary schools.
Because of the language problem, the knowledge of computers and internet also remains less, and therefore these subjects are not taught with a lot of ease.
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