The Teachers

THE value of teachers is appreciated neither by the teachers nor by the people. They assess the value of teachers on the basis of their pay. And because they get even less than a clerk, in conformity with the prevailing custom, the value of the teacher is held to be less than that of the clerk. Is that not the reason, one may wonder, why a teacher is called munshiji ?

How, then, is the status of the teacher to be raised? Is it possible to increase the salaries of seven lakh teachers in seven lakh villages? The right thing to do would be not to measure the value of the teachers on the basis of their salaries, and for the teachers to hold education as their chief aim and give a second place to what they get as payment for their work. In short, the teacher should look on education as his duty—Dharma—which he must perform. A teacher who ate his bread without performing this yajna, should be regarded as thief. If this is done, there will be no shortage of good teachers and their value will go up a million times. Every teacher can exalt himself to that position even to-day merely by changing his attitude.

— Navajivan : Aug. 10, 1924

Ancient Ideal

I believe in the ancient idea of teachers teaching for the love of it and receiving the barest maintenance. The Roman Catholics have retained that idea and they are responsible for some of the best educational institutions in the world. The Rishis of old did even better. They made their pupils members of their families, but in those days that class of teaching which they imparted was not intended for the masses. They simply brought up a race of real teachers of mankind in India. The masses got their training in their homes and in their hereditary occupations. It was a good enough ideal for those times. Circumstances have now changed. There is a general insistent demand for literary training. The masses claim the same attention as the classes. How far it is possible and beneficial to mankind generally cannot be discussed here. There is nothing inherently wrong in the desire for learning. If it is directed in a healthy channel, it can only do good. Without, therefore, stopping to devise means for avoiding the inevitable, we must make the best possible use of it.

Remuneration

Thousands of teachers cannot be had for the asking, nor will they live by begging. They must have a salary guaranteed and we shall require quite an army of teachers ; their remuneration cannot be in proportion to the intrinsic worth of their calling, but it will have to be in proportion to the capacity of the nation for payment. We may expect a steady rise as we realize the relative merits of the different callings. The rise must be painfully slow. There must, therefore, arise a class of men and women in India who will from patriotic motives choose teaching as a profession, irrespective of the material gain that it may bring them. Then, the nation will not underrate the calling of the teacher. On the contrary, it will give the first place in its affection to these self-sacrificing men and women. And so we come to this that as our Swaraj is possible largely by our own efforts, so is the teachers'' rise possible mainly by their own effort. They must bravely and patiently cut their way through to success.

— Young India : Aug. 6, 1925