Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Let’s take a walk down memory lane today, and what better way to do that to stand and witness a classroom from the 90s or 2000s — chalk dust in the air, a steel almirah creaking in the corner, a timetable pinned to the noticeboard. Prefects patrolling corridors, teachers checking neatly oiled hair, polished black shoes, trimmed nails and tucked-in shirts, and the ever-present threat of a “stand outside the class” or a few ruler taps on the knuckles. The bell is an actual bell, rung by hand. Somewhere, a peon is walking the corridor with an attendance register. And then it comes, right on cue, the moment a teacher walks in.
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“Gooood morninggg, teacherrr!”
Things were humbler, simpler.
Cut to 2026, the song in unison hasn’t completely disappeared from classrooms. It’s just not as common anymore. One might think it’s not a big deal, but it is actually telling of the changing classrooms — the same ones that once had a teacher scolding a latecomer, a child stood outside for forgetting a notebook, or an entire row made to stand on the bench for whispering during a lesson.
Back then, the biggest drama of a new session was the smell of a freshly covered notebook, the scramble to get your name on the “monitor” list, the report card, the new admissions, maybe a new benchmate you’d spend the rest of the year passing notes to.
Shalini Singh has been teaching in Delhi’s senior secondary schools long enough to remember those classrooms. But now, every new session brings something else entirely.
“Every year when a new session starts, I receive several WhatsApp messages from parents even post 10 pm, incessant calls and quite a few emails with the Principal in CC. Why? Because their 10-year-old is not willing to come to school as their section got changed, friends are not together. So, everyone wants us to make an exception for their kid. And section shuffling is not new. Accepting change, a bit of discomfort is part of life. Till when can we cocoon the children?”
For Divya Srivastava, a primary school teacher in Delhi, the transformation has been gradual.
“When I started, my day was about planning lessons and helping kids learn. Today, teaching is almost secondary. Much of my time goes into paperwork, logging behavioural incidents and replying to parent messages. We’ve also had to become full-time counsellors — helping kids navigate anxiety and social media drama before we can even open a textbook.”
Teaching was never easy. It had its own challenges with every changing generation. But today, the cost of being a teacher has changed manifold.
So, what’s changed?
A lot has become easier. And a lot has become more complicated.
Walking on eggshells
Turns out, today, simply raising voice with a stern expression and saying, “Is this a fish market?” doesn’t work as it used to.
Charu, Hindi HOD and class coordinator at a private school in Noida with over 25 years of experience, describes a recent incident that stopped her cold.
“The other day, a few students started quarrelling among themselves and it escalated. When a fellow teacher tried to politely break up a squabble and simply touched one of the students, the response wasn’t something I ever expected. ‘How dare you touch me? Wait till I tell my parents, either you will be in school or me.’ I was shocked! And guess what, the fight actually started on a group chat on Instagram and took a physical form in school.”
What followed was parents meeting the teachers, a long session with the principal, documentation and more paperwork. Charu reached home at 5pm, exhausted. “What worries me,” she says, “is how such cases are not one-offs anymore. They have become alarmingly common.”
When it comes to disciplining a student, most educators agree that they feel handcuffed and don’t have as much freedom as before. The fear of a minor incident snowballing into a major administrative headache has changed how teachers respond at that moment.
Many say they now think twice before correcting a student.
“Years ago, if you corrected a student, parents usually supported you. Now, because you never know which minor correction is going to explode into a whole major hassle, a lot of teachers just pull back, unfortunately,” says Srivastava,
Anjali Chauhan, senior secondary academic coordinator from Noida, puts it plainly: “Teaching has become more challenging because teachers now balance instruction with administrative tasks, technology and diverse student needs all at once. It requires flexibility, continuous learning and adaptability — far more than before.”
Apart from making students understand concepts, teachers have to keep a close eye on behavioural and emotional cues, manage technology, complete administrative work, maintain logs both offline and online, respond to parents and also not fall behind with the syllabus. And above all, there is almost no room for error. Ask teachers, and they will say that technology is not the hardest part. It is everything that comes with teaching, the paperwork, administrative tasks and constant demands beyond the classroom, that seems to be eating into their days and lives.
While parents today, rightly, are more concerned about their children’s emotional wellbeing, experts say there is another side to the conversation too: protecting children from every little discomfort may not necessarily prepare them for life outside the classroom.
A little disappointment, a difficult conversation or hearing a “no” can help children build resilience. When every small hurdle is taken away, they may also lose the chance to learn how to overcome it.
The great expectations
Teachers were once put on a pedestal. There was an almost unquestioning belief – the teacher knows the best. Parents trusted them to discipline their children, and sometimes even gave them carte blanche to do what it takes.
The old system had its own costs. Several adults today recall being shouted at, humiliated or disciplined in ways that has scarred them for life. Today, parents are more aware of the impact that such behaviour can have on a child’s development. They question teachers more, ask for explanations and no longer blindly follow the “teacher is always right” philosophy. They expect more and hold them more accountable.
“Schools today charge a lot, and naturally, parents have certain expectations. My child spends a large part of the day at school, so I expect the teacher to know my child, recognise if something is wrong and communicate if my child is repeatedly disturbing the class, falling behind, having problems with a friend or seems unusually withdrawn. I’m not asking them to raise my child, but I do expect them to take responsibility for what happens in their classroom,” says Anuj Mathur, father of a 17-year-old student.
While parents being more involved in their children’s lives is a positive generational shift, sometimes that involvement can blur the line between being engaged and interfering.
“Teacher-parent communication nowadays occurs continuously and quickly, which means they have limited time for rest and planning. The reason is that parents expect teachers to be available all the time and respond immediately. Thus, there is a challenge of undermining the boundaries between work and personal lives. The implementation of technology has positive aspects related to transparency, but at the same time, it entails following strict communication rules,” Ms Santosh Solanki, school counsellor, Dharav High School, Ajmer Road, Jaipur, tells India Today.
And this is probably where teachers have a bone to pick with WhatsApp and, on particularly exhausting days, may even wish Graham Bell had never invented the telephone.
Where does the tug of war end?
According to Charu, a drastic overhaul in the teaching environment happened post-Covid. Social media, constant screen time and sedentary lifestyles have a cardinal role to play. “You know, there’s no blame game here. While the change is difficult for us, we cannot simply blame the kids. Children spent crucial years at home, glued to screens, and I don’t think we’ve fully recovered from that.”
But if the classroom has changed, so has the responsibility of everyone around it. Principal Dr Alka Kapur, Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh, acknowledges that schools hold a profound responsibility to reinforce essential ethical values and critical life skills, yet true character building fundamentally begins at home.
“A school simply cannot replace a parent’s daily role in building basic habits and emotional resilience. The best outcomes are achieved when schools and families are on the same page, working together with mutual trust and respect for each other’s roles.”
Parents, too, acknowledge that the equation has become more complicated.
Vikas Gangawal, father of 12-year-old Reyansh, acknowledges that teaching has become much more transactional, professional and there’s a loss of that personal touch, but also believes that parents are the biggest factor influencing what happens between teachers and students.
“Teachers don’t have enough freedom because of parents. Teachers hesitate to correct children because of parents. When it comes to values, manners, behaviour and even consistent academic support, that responsibility begins at home.”
And if anything, pop culture has got classroom chaos too. ‘Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya‘, the new Kay Kay Menon-led comedy, follows teachers juggling new gen students and their unfiltered behaviour, administrative hurdles and more. It’s funny on screen. For many teachers, it’s just another day at work.
What’s the cost of being a teacher today?
A lot.
Hours on their feet, constant talking and being on alert can mean voice strain, back and leg pain and, for some, varicose veins. Teachers are also increasingly expected to handle health emergencies. The day doesn’t end with a dispersal bell. For teachers, this may be another difficult day at work. For their families, watching it unfold from the outside feels more different.
For Harshita, Charu’s daughter, it’s a bit scary.
“When I come home and my mom, is on a call with a tense expression, my first instinct is, I hope nothing bad happened at school. The kind of news I read every day about students and unfortunate instances at schools, it’s like working in a minefield.”
Basically, here’s what a teacher’s syllabus looks like: You have to be a good teacher, have an understanding of mental health and a high EQ to respond to students appropriately. You need to be prompt with technology, communicate actively with parents and, with health concerns on the rise, be equipped to handle emergencies. Some schools are even training teachers in CPR and teaching them how to spot and respond to anxiety attacks.
The KRAs have been expanded, maybe not so much on official contact, but freedom has relatively shrunk.
If you are looking at how to mitigate this cost, it’s not easy, but not impossible either.
Solanki suggests getting the balance right will take everyone on the table—schools, parents, policymakers and teachers—to work together. Schools need clearer communication, better mental health support, less paperwork and proper training for teachers. Policymakers, too, need to look at teacher wellbeing through better staffing, resources and support and with people not living in extremes.
Generations have evolved and so have the classrooms and teaching. And, in between unquestioning authority and constant scrutiny, teachers are trying to keep up and simply find time to teach better, educate the youth and maybe actually have that adarsh vidyalaya.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
