My memory of Rev Fr Rudolph Schoch SJ works as more than nostalgia. That's my respect for Rev Fr Rudolph Schoch SJ, the former and late Principal of Loyola High School, Pune. He gave that interview byte to my immediate senior Puneet Wadhwa in 1986. I still recall him as a French bearded white cassock figure who showed me a picture and asked me to describe it, as part of my admission selection process in 1973. What I recall more is his smile and laughter which he shared with my father who accompanied me to the process.
The picture-description admission interview was not merely a selection device; it was a small act of educational seeing. The cassock, beard, smile, laughter and attentive prompt to a child all point to what teaching once visibly carried: authority softened by presence.
The paradox today is severe: India reveres the Guru rhetorically, but under-invests in the schoolteacher institutionally.
1. What the Indian data can and cannot prove
There are three hard limits in the public data:
India does not publish a clean state-wise cohort trail showing how many graduates or postgraduates immediately enter B.Ed/M.Ed and then become career educators. AISHE reports enrolment in teacher-education programmes, not graduate-to-teacher career flow.
India does not centrally publish state-wise teacher attrition rates as a clean annual series. Vacancies are the public proxy. A Rajya Sabha answer says vacancy and recruitment details are maintained by States/UTs, and recruitment is continuous because of retirement, resignation, new schools, student strength and other requirements.
Teacher salary comparability is messy. Regular state-government teachers, aided-school teachers, contractual teachers, guest teachers, and para-teachers are not one labour market. A national average salary for state-administered schoolteachers is not published as a simple official figure.
So, the honest argument must say: the teacher is forgotten not only in pay and vacancies, but also in the weakness of public measurement.
2. The feeder pipeline: B.Ed/M.Ed as the available proxy
AISHE 2021–22 reports total higher-education enrolment of 4.33 crore, including 2.07 crore women. It is the best national higher-education source for teacher-education enrolments, though not for immediate career transition into teaching. (Press Information Bureau)
Source: AISHE 2021–22 programme enrolment tables.
Interpretation
India has a large teacher-education enrolment pool. But the problem is not simply “not enough people study B.Ed.” The deeper issue is whether teacher education is treated as:
a fallback credential,
a secure employment route,
a professional vocation,
or a serious public capability investment.
That distinction matters. A society that treats teaching as fallback labour cannot expect Finnish, Vietnamese, or Chinese seriousness in classroom outcomes.
3. Vacancies: the visible symptom of the forgotten teacher
The Standing Committee on Education reported that in 2024–25, against 69,85,760 sanctioned teacher posts, only 60,03,098 were in position, leaving 9,82,662 vacancies, or 14.07%. It also noted that vacancies were 9,59,148 in 2023–24, or 15.16%.
More sharply, the Committee observed that regular teacher recruitment has almost stopped in many places and that contractual recruitment is being used, with adverse implications for students.
State-wise teacher vacancies, 2023–24
NR = not reported in the Rajya Sabha table. Source: Ministry of Education reply, Rajya Sabha, 2024.
Interpretation
The vacancy table is not just an HR table. It is a moral table. It shows where children are asked to learn without a fully staffed adult world around them. It also shows where teachers who remain in post are asked to compensate for state incapacity.
That is the beginning of exploitation disguised as vocation.
4. Salary: what “giving profession” hides
Teaching may involve giving. But it should not require self-depletion.
A better sentence would be:
Teaching is a giving profession only after society has first given to teaching.
For regular government-school salaries, the closest comparable national framework is the 7th Central Pay Commission style pay matrix used in central-school and many benchmarked recruitment contexts. Actual state salaries differ by state, cadre, allowances, and service rules.
Indicative regular teacher pay bands in India
The Level 6–8 pay ranges correspond to 7th CPC matrix levels frequently used for schoolteacher recruitment benchmarks. (Centre for Development of Telematics)
Experience view: basic pay only
This excludes DA, HRA, state allowances, pension structure, arrears, deductions, and large differences between regular and contractual appointments.
The hidden problem
The Indian middle-class often asks teachers to be:
morally generous,
emotionally patient,
administratively compliant,
academically updated,
technologically adaptive,
socially sensitive,
and available beyond school hours.
But it often resists the corresponding public expenditure, career architecture, and professional status.
That is not reverence. It is extraction with cultural fragrance.
5. International contrast: how other systems groom teachers
The OECD’s work on teacher preparation stresses that initial teacher education must combine theory, practice, supervised teaching, and strong school–university partnerships. More than three-quarters of OECD and partner systems use concurrent teacher-preparation models for pre-primary to lower-secondary teachers. (OECD Education GPS)
Selected international patterns
6. PISA STEM proficiency: where India stands
India last participated in PISA in 2009, through Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, and has not participated since. The Government of India has noted that NAS, not PISA, is India’s national school assessment mechanism. (Press Information Bureau)
So India cannot be honestly placed in PISA 2022 STEM rankings.
PISA 2022 STEM snapshot
Sources: OECD PISA 2022 country notes. (OECD Education GPS)
A simple Pearson correlation between math and science scores across Vietnam, Philippines, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina is approximately r = 0.96. That is not a causal proof that teacher pay produces STEM proficiency. It does show that system capability tends to travel together: where math learning is stronger, science learning is usually stronger too.
The more provocative finding is Vietnam. It is not the richest country in this comparison, yet it outperforms richer Latin American systems in PISA. That suggests teacher investment must include salary, but cannot stop at salary. It must include selection, standards, classroom practice, mentoring, instructional coherence, and social esteem.
7. Education outlay and per-capita income
India’s GDP per capita was about US$2,695 in 2024. Vietnam’s was about US$4,717, and the Philippines about US$3,985. World Bank GDP-per-capita series provide the cross-country income base for comparison. (World Bank Open Data)
Government education expenditure as a share of GDP is defined by the World Bank as current, capital, and transfer spending on education by general government. (DataBank) India’s education expenditure was reported at about 4.1% of GDP in 2022. (Trading Economics)
Working comparison
The lesson is not “spend alone.” The lesson is spend coherently.
Vietnam shows that teacher standards, preparation, professional development, and classroom seriousness can produce strong STEM outcomes even without high-income-country wealth. The Philippines shows that salary structures and large budgets do not automatically yield proficiency. Latin America shows that national wealth does not guarantee classroom transformation.
8. The argument sharpened
The phrase “teaching is a giving profession” must be challenged because it has two meanings.
The best teachers do give. But they should give from abundance, preparation, dignity, and professional confidence — not from exhaustion.
9. What a giving society would do
A society that truly values teachers would:
- Publish teacher labour-market data properlyTrack B.Ed/M.Ed graduates, entry into teaching, retention, attrition, vacancies, contractualization, and rural/urban distribution.
- Fill sanctioned posts within a time-bound windowThe Standing Committee recommended recruitment and joining within six months.
- Stop normalising contractual teaching for permanent learning needsContractualisation converts public education into a low-cost holding operation.
- Invest in teacher educatorsIndia needs teacher educators who remain connected to classrooms, as seen in China’s school-linked teacher-education reforms. (World Bank)
- Tie career growth to real professional developmentNot attendance certificates, but classroom practice, peer observation, STEM facilitation, assessment literacy, and student interaction quality.
- Protect teacher timePreparation, feedback, parent engagement, and student observation require time. A teacher with no time to think is reduced to a syllabus courier.
- Make teacher pay socially legibleSalary should be discussed not as charity, but as investment in national cognitive infrastructure.
Closing frame
Rev Fr Rudolph Schoch’s smile and laughter with my father were not incidental. They were part of the climate in which a child could speak, observe, describe, and be received.
That is what a teacher does before content begins.
India does not lack reverence for the Guru in speech. It lacks sufficient institutional gratitude for the teacher in budgets, data, staffing, preparation, and pay.
The final argument, therefore, is this:
Below is an APA 7-style reference list for the position paper. I have kept it to sources that directly support the evidence base: AISHE enrolments, teacher vacancies, PISA comparisons, teacher salary/career structures, teacher preparation, GDP per capita, and education expenditure. The Indian enrolment and vacancy sources are official government sources; PISA sources are OECD; income and education-spending indicators are World Bank/UIS-backed datasets. (Education Government India)
References
Department of Budget and Management. (2026, January 22). National Budget Circular No. 601: Implementation of the third tranche of the updated salary schedule for the civilian government personnel under Executive Order No. 64, s. 2024. Government of the Philippines. https://www.dbm.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/Issuances/2026/National-Budget-Circular/NATIONAL-BUDGET-CIRCULAR-NO.-601_NEW.pdf
Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports. (2025). Report on Demands for Grants 2025–26 of the Department of School Education and Literacy. Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Parliament of India. https://sansad.in/getFile/rsnew/Committee_site/Committee_File/ReportFile/16/198/363_2025_6_12.pdf?source=rajyasabha
Government of India, Ministry of Education. (2024, February 7). Vacancies of school teachers: Rajya Sabha unstarred question no. 525. Parliament of India. https://sansad.in/getFile/annex/263/AU525.pdf?source=pqars
Government of India, Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education. (2024). All India Survey on Higher Education 2021–22. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statistics-new/AISHE%20Book_2021-22_4.pdf
Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. (2024, September 30). Contractual staff with salary. https://kvsangathan.nic.in/en/contractual-staff-with-salary/
Ministerio de Educación del Perú. (n.d.). Reforma magisterial: Docentes nombrados. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://www.minedu.gob.pe/reforma-magisterial/docentes-nombrados.php
OECD. (2022). Education at a glance 2022: OECD indicators. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/3197152b-en
OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 results: Factsheets—Argentina. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2022-results-volume-i-and-ii-country-notes_ed6fbcc5-en/argentina_09c7d993-en.html
OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 results: Factsheets—Brazil. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2022-results-volume-i-and-ii-country-notes_ed6fbcc5-en/brazil_61690648-en.html
OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 results: Factsheets—Peru. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2023/11/pisa-2022-results-volume-i-and-ii-country-notes_2fca04b9/peru_21d86e8b/3e71791c-en.pdf
OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 results: Factsheets—Philippines. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2022-results-volume-i-and-ii-country-notes_ed6fbcc5-en/philippines_a0882a2d-en.html
OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 results: Factsheets—Viet Nam. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2022-results-volume-i-and-ii-country-notes_ed6fbcc5-en/viet-nam_a727c3a8-en.html
OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 results: The state of learning and equity in education: Volume I. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/53f23881-en
OECD. (n.d.). Teacher initial education. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/teacher-initial-education.html
OECD. (n.d.). Review education policies: Teacher initial education. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://gpseducation.oecd.org/revieweducationpolicies/
Press Information Bureau. (2017, February 6). International quality education. Government of India. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1481862
UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning. (n.d.). Teacher career reforms in Peru. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/publication/teacher-career-reforms-peru
World Bank. (n.d.). GDP per capita (current US$) [Data set]. World Development Indicators. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD
World Bank. (n.d.). Government expenditure on education, total (% of GDP) [Data set]. World Development Indicators. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS
World Bank. (2025). Viet Nam: Transforming teacher education through initial teacher education and continuing professional development. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/88896b5d6bac3c34dbc4771110d34f08-0510022025/original/LEAP-Teachers-and-School-Leadership-Case-Study-Viet-Nam-ENG.pdf
World Bank. (n.d.). Highlights of Chinese education: Planning, financing and teachers. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/836481629964578978/pdf/Highlights-of-Chinese-Education-Planning-Financing-and-Teachers.pdf
