I am a teacher at a reputed self-financing college in Kottayam of nearly two years for a salary of Rs 15,000 a month. The salary for May, the month in which I am supposedly not working, is not paid, despite the fact that I have to report at the college whenever I am called for any duty anytime during, and that work goes unaccounted. I do the duty assigned to me with full sincerity, and I report back at the college on the reopening day as usual. The new academic year is full of pressure and anxiety. There is an intense sense of hope curiosity not just for me but the entire teaching staff because there are talks about a possible hike in salary. The excitement ends on a bitter note with the information that the much-vaunted hike is a meagre Rs 500. Now I start to think: Is this fair? I take at least 15 hours of class every week as mandated by the University rules. At times I do more than what is required of me, and I have had many days where I had to take classes continuously.
Apart from teaching, we do engage in a slew of non-teaching assignments such as evaluation examination paper, tabulation of marks and all sorts of paperwork and any other work that comes along the way. Our hard work and commitment are never acknowledged or rewarded. Our work and we as a community remain invisible and ignored. We know that in many other sectors of professional life people are paid separately for each work they perform. The poor pay and the working condition is also acting as a killer of motivation. I have seen people having the NET qualification, who is yet to get a regular appointment, being paid the same meagre Rs 15,000 per month. If the plight of the NET qualified is so bad then less said is better for persons who are yet to cross the NET barrier. In fact, this has killed all motivation in me to try and crack the NET because I feel that it is not going to make much of a difference if I fail to get a regular appointment.
The truth is we are invisible to most of the people around us. We are invisible to the management, the University, and the government. Yet, nobody raises a voice, lets out a cry, against this injustice. The worst part is the indifference of a large section of society giving the impression that what is happening is only natural and logical. We continue to suffer in silence because teachers are supposedly a ‘refined' community engaged in the noblest of a profession. I recently came across reports in the newspaper saying that daily wages for all workers employed in the unorganised sector have been raised to Rs 600. Sadly, most of us are thoroughly underpaid if you assess our salaries on that scale. People who are engaged in the so-called “odd” jobs enjoy more privileges than we do. Maybe they have unions to protect their rights and see that their grievances redressed. Recently I met a woman teacher who told me that she was trying for a post as a Forest Ranger so that she could get a secure job.
It seemed unfortunate to me that she had to look for a secure job at this age when she was already married and was the mother of two. Again, I was in this miserable state of affairs when I had to endure a rather terrible train journey from Thrissur to Kottayam. The train was packed with people, and there wasn’t even space to stand. My co-passengers explained that they were all returning after the LDC examination held in the district. The journey was dreadful, and I regretted my decision to board the train. As I was struggling to steady my footing, I asked the lady standing solemnly next to me, “Do you regret having come today?”
She immediately answered, “Never“. On further enquiry, she told me that she was also a teacher. “What would all the students do if their teachers were out on job hunting?” I joked. She only smiled. I could understand from her solemn expression that the teaching she did brought her very little job satisfaction and happiness I am 25 and single and could manage with the Rs 15,000 a month. But it bothers me when my other friends, employed in other sectors taking care of themselves and their parents with own salary while I end up borrowing from my parents when my extravagance gets the better of me. I am not at all proud of it. I am sure that the salary of Rs 15,000 does not help a colleague who is also the father of four toddlers. Nobody ever acknowledges such difficult situations except through empty words. We continue in silence struggling to make both ends meet.
The government is oblivious to the existence of a large group of marginalised citizens employed in the teaching field who work their best and struggle for the students without complaints. The government is also oblivious to the fate of students graduating from the various self-financing colleges across Kerala. I think it's high time the government and the authorities concerned felt about this injustice and take steps to make life easier for this ‘invisible’ community. Let me close, rewriting words of Martin Luther King Jr. …let us not be judged by the heap of degrees or qualification one holds, but by the content of our character and the values we stand for.
Ann Sebastian, a DC reader and a lecturer in one of such colleges, writes about her experience as an ill-paid teacher.
