Indic World View

THE PROBLEM

Teaching is one of the lowest paid professions around the world. Yet it is one of the most crucial activities for the sustenance of a nation and civilization, second only to food & nutrition and physical security. Other activities earn disproportionately more income relative to their importance to a civilization. The reason for this is: in other professions it is relatively easy to connect action, performance and result. Whereas in teaching, actual performance of a graduated student happens in the field and the results are attributed only to the graduated student and not to the teachers who have helped shape them. The student is said to earn “by themselves”. The vital contribution made by teachers through school and college is not rewarded through actual performance of the graduated student.

A SOLUTION

A possible solution to this is to introduce a duty to every person. That they must pay into a Teacher’s Fund, every year that they are working, as a percentage of their income. Digital records could be maintained of each citizen as to their school and college records including who their teachers were. The Fund would then be used to compensate teachers as an additional bonus directly to their bank accounts apart from their regular salaries from the educational institution. This would tie the performance of a citizen back to the important people in their lives who helped shape them. It would also help incentivize teachers to think about the long-term potential and development of their students rather than just exam results. It would also make students conscious of their future payments and thus pay more attention to gain maximum education from their teachers while in school. This scheme could be made voluntary or it could be taken as a tax or a requirement like CSR (Individual Social Responsibility). Teachers could thus be compensated handsomely for producing students of great caliber and take an interest in their education. The world is very commercial. So, repaying teachers would go a long way toward tying up outputs at one end with inputs at the other in the Education domain.

Some other points:

• Everything is commercial. Even erstwhile professions which did not have a commercial angle have become commercial. Why should the teaching profession not be commercial? Performance of a teacher in terms of developing students into good contributing citizens can be gauged by the productivity of the students in the workplace. This is most easily measured by the income that they would earn.
• The program could be voluntary; students and teachers could sign-up to be a part of the program. Records could be maintained. When future earnings materialize, the students (now workers), can designate which of their teachers they would like to have receive a bonus.
• There are other considerations such as how much of earnings should be set for this, for how long, to which teachers etc. All of these can be discussed and set up as part of the government program based on wide consultations with the various stakeholders.

So what do you think of this idea? Do you believe that citizens need to give back to those who have helped shape them? Are there other ways to do so? Please do put your comments in the below section. Thanks for reading!