This Teacher’s Day, give teachers their time back

Every few months, schools seem to discover something new that instructors must do: a fresh report, another portal, photographs from an activity, updated data, responses to messages and much more. Individually, each request sounds perfectly reasonable. Collectively, they are quietly changing the profession.

With Teacher’s Day approaching, educators are frequently honoured as foundational mentors who guide future generations. Nonetheless, a more crucial question is how much of their daily time is genuinely allocated to teaching. A regular school day is a never-ending balancing act for teachers. A teacher walks between classes while juggling a slew of obligations, including tracking a troublesome pupil, remembering an ill child, grading notebooks or assignments, completing reports and notifying parents. Even the regular lunch break rarely provides relaxation. Instead, teachers use this time to help children, monitor corridors and playgrounds, manage playground conflicts and organise future activities. By the time these immediate responsibilities are completed, the break is over and the next bell rings. The unopened lunch box merely demonstrates a common systemic issue: the belief that a teacher’s time is endless. Technological improvements have hastened this expectation.

Although parent communication and administrative efficiency are critical, the convenience of digital messaging has created an expectation of a fast response. As a result, professional responsibilities extend well beyond dismissal. Furthermore, the modern emphasis on compliance paperwork has reached a crucial point where documenting educational achievements actively undermines their delivery. It is teachers who photograph activities, upload evidence, maintain records and prepare reports. Yet some of the most important work in a classroom is precisely what cannot be photographed. Nobody documents the moment when a teacher notices that a normally talkative child has become unusually quiet.

No portal entry captures the extra explanation that prevents a ten-year-old from deciding, ‘I am bad at maths.’ No photograph captures a teacher choosing to correct a child privately because public embarrassment might stay with the child longer than the mistake. These are small decisions. They are also education.

This is why teacher wellbeing should not be treated merely as a workplace benefit. A teacher’s attention is part of a child’s learning environment. So are patience, preparation and emotional energy. When these are constantly fragmented, the cost does not remain in the staffroom. It eventually reaches the classroom. This is not an argument against accountability. Teachers must be accountable. Parents deserve communication. Schools require systems and records.

However, successful systems should allow teachers to teach more effectively rather than making them busier proving that they have taught.

Perhaps this Teacher’s Day, we should avoid expecting teachers to do more. Instead, school officials, policymakers and even parents might address a more difficult question: Which aspects of a teacher’s workload truly benefit a child’s education, and which have just become routines that we no longer question?

While presents, flowers and speeches on September 5 are well-deserved, the most effective way to thank a teacher is to give them the time and mental peace they need to focus on their children.

The writer is an educator and a counsellor; Views presented are personal.