The Lift Line
“Honouring a few teachers is not enough. We need to modernise their preparation and take policy-level steps to address the lower status of primary teachers.” (Latika Gupta, The Indian Express)
Why This Editorial Matters for Your Exam
This column in The Indian Express of 8 October 2026 is by Latika Gupta, who teaches education at Delhi University. Written in the week of World Teachers’ Day (5 October), which this year marks 60 years of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (1966), it asks why so many teachers leave within their first five years, especially in primary schools.
Its answer is about status and preparation, not just numbers, and it takes a critical view of the Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) under NEP 2020. That makes it useful for GS2 questions on education and human resources and for Essay themes on teachers and nation-building. For context, see our roundup item on World Teachers’ Day 2026 and the President’s view of the teacher’s role in our September editorial.
GS Paper 2: Issues relating to development and management of social sector services relating to education and human resources. Essay: education, teachers, social change.
Background and Context
The global warning
UNESCO’s Global Report on Teachers, the first edition of a biennial report with the Teacher Task Force (the author cites it as 2023; the full report was released in 2024), projects a shortfall of 44 million primary and secondary teachers worldwide by 2030. It found that teachers are leaving within their first five years, especially at the primary level, and called teacher shortage pervasive. Southern Asia has made the most progress, halving its shortage since 2016, but still needs 7.8 million teachers.
| Cause of shortage (as listed in the report, per the author) | Consequence |
|---|---|
| low motivation; difficult working conditions | heavier workloads for remaining teachers |
| slow recruitment | weaker sense of well-being |
| weak professional preparation | prospective teachers discouraged |
| low status |
The 1966 Recommendation at 60
The ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, adopted on 5 October 1966, set benchmarks for teachers’ rights and responsibilities and standards for their preparation and employment. In 2026, UNESCO highlights new pressures from digital technologies, climate change, migration and displacement. The author’s point is that teachers’ work has always been undervalued, marked by limited professional autonomy and little voice in policymaking.
Teacher education in India: the two programmes
| Programme | What it is |
|---|---|
| B.El.Ed. (Delhi University, 1990s) | Delhi University’s first-ever four-year integrated professional degree in elementary teacher education |
| ITEP (under NEP 2020) | four-year dual-major degree (BA-B.Ed., B.Sc.-B.Ed., B.Com-B.Ed.); curriculum by NCTE; admission through NCET conducted by the NTA; started in 57 institutions in 2023-24; NEP 2020 makes the four-year integrated B.Ed. the minimum qualification for teachers by 2030 |
The Analysis
The author examines two of the report’s causes, motivation and preparation.
1. Motivation: a career that goes nowhere. UNESCO lists attractive career pathways with equitable access to professional development as key to keeping teachers. In India, primary teaching is “not even a pathway”: it is among the most stagnant cadres. Primary teaching experience does not count towards eligibility to become a school principal. Secondary teachers who become principals move on to policy roles in the bureaucracy; primary teachers do not. So, more than 70 years after Independence, the knowledge primary teachers gain from teaching beginners, including millions of first-generation learners, is absent from policymaking and school administration. The loss is twofold: the system loses a resource and keeps a large workforce whose enthusiasm fades.
2. Preparation: the Achilles’ heel. Teacher preparation is the weak link between the school and university systems, and Indian universities have long been reluctant to lead it, especially for the primary level. DU’s B.El.Ed., introduced in the 1990s, was a small but major breakthrough: it placed elementary teacher preparation inside a central university. Its graduates saw themselves as teachers of children, not transmitters of a subject, and developed the commitment and resilience to stay and improve the system, which the UNESCO report identifies as a way to tackle shortages.
3. Training versus teaching. The B.El.Ed. exposed a dilemma: should teachers be trained or educated?
| Training | Teaching (education) | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | “tricks of the trade”, such as voice modulation | relationship between teacher and students |
| Stance | dependence on being trained by others | autonomous pursuit of knowledge |
| Learners | textbook content transmitted | specific needs from caste, poverty, gender, language, tribal background |
The training orientation began in the colonial system’s narrow purpose of transmitting textbook content. It survived even the reports of progressive commissions; “teacher education” became the accepted term in recent policy documents, but the programmes kept their training features.
4. NEP 2020 and ITEP: homogenisation. In the author’s view, the reforms under NEP 2020 reinforce the colonial training format. ITEP, which the author calls a new name for the old BA/B.Sc.-B.Ed., is meant to replace all teacher education programmes. As universities moved to the four-year undergraduate degree, teacher education was given “casual and unspecialised treatment”: general higher-education rules on credits and dual degrees were applied to it, putting content ahead of the learner and the teacher’s autonomy.
5. The result. Poorly prepared and facing new pressures, teachers quit early or stay demotivated. The author notes that the UNESCO report does not list India among the countries likely to close their teacher gap by 2030.
Data and Institutions Vault
Prelims-grade facts:
- World Teachers’ Day: 5 October; marks the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, 1966; 60th anniversary in 2026.
- Global Report on Teachers (UNESCO and Teacher Task Force): 44 million teachers needed worldwide by 2030; Southern Asia 7.8 million.
- Early exit: teachers leave within five years, especially at the primary level.
- B.El.Ed.: Delhi University, 1990s, four-year integrated elementary teacher education.
- ITEP: four-year dual-major (BA/B.Sc./B.Com-B.Ed.); NCTE curriculum; NCET by NTA; 57 institutions from 2023-24; minimum teacher qualification by 2030 under NEP 2020.
- SDG 4.c: increase the supply of qualified teachers.
- Author: Latika Gupta, teaches education at Delhi University.
⚠️ Watch the trap: India’s Teachers’ Day is 5 September (S. Radhakrishnan); World Teachers’ Day is 5 October. The 1966 text is a non-binding ILO/UNESCO Recommendation, not a convention.
The Debate
The author’s case. Teachers leave because primary teaching is a dead end and preparation is shallow training. ITEP, by homogenising teacher education under general degree rules, makes preparation less specialised, not more.
The other side. ITEP’s backers argue that a single four-year integrated degree raises the floor in a sector long crowded with low-quality stand-alone B.Ed. colleges, and that dual majors give teachers real subject depth. Attrition also has causes outside preparation that the column does not dwell on: contract and para-teacher hiring, delayed pay, remote postings and non-teaching duties.
The balanced verdict. The two views meet on one point: who prepares teachers, and for whom. A four-year degree can work if it is designed around how young children learn, with university departments of education taking ownership, as the B.El.Ed. did. Without a career ladder for primary teachers, though, even the best-prepared will leave.
How to Think About This
Teacher shortage has three layers: numbers (recruitment and vacancies), status (careers, autonomy, voice) and preparation (training versus education). Most answers stop at the first. This column is valuable because it supplies the other two, with a concrete example of each: primary experience not counting for headship, and the B.El.Ed. as a model of university-led preparation. Use the training-versus-education contrast in essays on learning outcomes or first-generation learners.
Diagram-in-Words
Why primary teachers quit before year five
From a global warning, through two causes, status and preparation, to what must change.
Takeaway Box
- Core idea: primary teachers quit within five years because their careers stall and their preparation is narrow training.
- Evidence: UNESCO Global Report on Teachers: 7.8 million shortfall in Southern Asia; 44 million worldwide by 2030.
- Model: DU’s B.El.Ed. (1990s) built commitment by educating teachers of children.
- Critique: NEP 2020’s ITEP homogenises programmes and puts credits and content first.
- Way forward: career ladders, voice in policy, specialised university-led preparation.
Revision Flowchart
Teachers quitting before year five
Know the terms, Prelims pointers and traps, Mains pointers, and a practice question.
Sources: The Indian Express, column by Latika Gupta, 8 October 2026; UNESCO and Teacher Task Force, Global Report on Teachers; Vikaspedia, Ministry of Education notifies ITEP.
Source: Why Teachers Quit Before Year Five: India's Classroom Crisis — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Editorial Analysis
