Satire: The 24-hour respect for 'nation builders' and our data entry masters

The government now sees them as less human and more like an extension board.

September 5 is a day for our country's teachers that is no less than a Cinderella story. Teacher's Day may have passed, but on that morning, 'Nation Builders' and 'Burning Candle' badges start circulating on WhatsApp. Children give plastic roses worth ₹5 hoping for grace marks in board exams, and our leaders grab the microphone to deliver emotional speeches as if all teachers will be receiving respect akin to that of politicians from tomorrow.

But as the sun rises on September 6, this entire illusion shatters. By the time our column is published, our 'Nation Builder' will have once again become an ordinary government worker, who is sometimes searching for worms in mid-day meal rice, sometimes distributing election pamphlets, and sometimes devising ways to avoid neighborhood dogs while administering pulse polio drops.

Modern education policies have polished the capabilities of teachers to such an extent that the government now sees them as less of a human and more like an electrical 'extension board' into which every department's plug can easily be inserted. Nowadays, teachers are also burdened with a new online data entry task called 'SIR' around their necks.

There was a time when children respectfully called teachers 'Sir', and the teacher's chest would swell with pride. Now, the government has imposed such a torment of 'SIR' responsibilities and a burden of apps on them that even a vegetable vendor mistakenly calling out "Sir Ji!" makes the teacher tremble in fear, thinking perhaps a new survey from the education department has arrived.

Teachers now operate smartphones more than they use chalk and dusters, so that every fifteen minutes they can stand in front of the school washroom and upload geo-tag selfies on some new government app to prove they are on duty and not sipping tea at a hotel.

The truth is that our teachers have become more 'data entry operators' than educators. Poor souls stay awake all night linking children's Aadhaar cards on the U-DISE portal and stand in history class in the morning wondering whether Akbar Azam had an Aadhaar card or a PAN card!

And the remaining issues have been compounded by today's 'Gen-Z' students and their 'corporate' parents. This new generation seeks 'vibes' rather than knowledge in class. For them, a teacher is not a respected figure but a walking, talking YouTube video that they unfortunately cannot 'skip'. If a teacher explains that Babur won the battle of Panipat, these Gen-Z students innocently say, "Sir! Babur's vibes seem very toxic and a red flag, please cancel it!"

And if the teacher explains a difficult math formula for 40 minutes, the request comes, "Sir! Please explain it in a 30-second reel, my attention span is running out, and please add some trending music in the background."

In earlier times, a teacher's reprimand would correct children, and parents would happily say, "Master Ji! His bones are ours, and your skin is yours." Now the situation is such that if a teacher merely glares at a child, the child immediately labels it 'mental trauma' and goes live on social media.

In the evening, these children's corporate parents storm into the school as if the teacher has committed a serious violation of some consumer court law. Education has now become like online shopping on Amazon, and parents have become customers. If a child fails an exam, parents confront the teacher as if they are venting at a Zomato delivery boy, "Sir Ji! We ordered 90 percent marks, how did you deliver this 40 percent subpar service? We will give you a single star rating on Google!"

Our only demand from the government, society, and education department is that if they truly wish to respect teachers, then instead of giving them the title of 'burning candle' and plastic flowers on Teacher's Day, they should at least allow them to teach for just one day a year. Otherwise, it won't be long before on September 5, when a child lovingly gives a flower to the teacher, the teacher will nervously say,

"Beta! Don't give me this flower, immediately make a PDF of it and upload it to the server along with your geo-tag location, otherwise the government will think I took half a day off without celebrating Teacher's Day!"