Teacher Career Information
"If the heavens were all parchment, and the trees of the forest pens and every human being were a scribe, it would be impossible to record all that I have learned from my teachers." - Jock Zakkai
If you can be surrounded by a dozen kids and still maintain your sanity, if you believe that children are the future of our nation and hence need to be properly tutored. If you believe that maths can be fun and history interesting, you were born to be a teacher.
What a Teacher does
As a teacher you'll play a vital role in the intellectual and emotional development of children. You'll either teach one class of children in several subjects or a special subject to a number of classes.
Your job includes planning, designing, implementing lessons and maintaining classroom discipline. You could work as a schoolteacher, a special education teacher, adult vocational-education trainer or a college professor.
Kindergarten And Pre-Primary School Teachers: Your job involves introducing children to numbers, language, science and social studies. Games, music, films and now computers are some of the tools used to teach basic skills.
Secondary And Higher Secondary School Teachers: Here you'll be involved in imparting more specialised education in many of the same subjects as elementary school teachers.
In addition to teaching, you'll prepare lesson plans and report cards, maintain discipline in the classroom, grade assignments and tests, monitor students' progress, meet with administrators and parents, etc.
Special Education Teachers: A challenging job as you'll teach children with disabilities such as speech impairments, learning disabilities, mental retardation, emotional development disabilities, hearing and visual impairments, brain injury and other impairments to help them learn and develop to their maximum potential.
Apart from developing their hearing, visual, speech or language capabilities, as a teacher, you will also deal with various behaviour disorders or mental illnesses.
Developing individual plans for each student and working closely with parents and counsellors to develop an appropriate curriculum is your job.
College And University Faculty Members: As a lecturer or professor you'll teach more than one course to undergraduate and graduate students. If you choose administrative job your teaching workload will be lighter.
Job Opportunities
As a Teacher you will find work in:
Teaching offers a vast field of opportunities. Teachers work with people of all ages, from toddlers to senior citizens.
They work in many different settings, from well-appointed private boarding schools to dilapidated community centres to colleges and universities.
Opportunities also exist in the Defence forces as teachers in the Education Corps of the Army, Navy and other forces.
Career Prospects
Teaching is quite a lucrative profession these days. There is ample scope for earning even after your normal working hours. College and university teachers are very well paid.
Another upcoming field is online education. In fact according to some industry pundits, online education is going to be the next big thing in the cyber world. And with this, there will be a barrage of positions for teachers and educators.
The online teachers will be developing teaching materials, interacting online with the students, answering students' queries, solving their problems, etc.
Apart from these, teaching is one of the most flexible professions. It permits career-breaks and late entries. Teachers can switch their careers for positions where communication skills are important. Marketing, writing, and research careers are some of the options.
Abilities & Traits Required
Enter this field only if you have the ability to communicate and interact effectively. Around here, it is essential to be creative, organised, methodical and patient. Students respond better to teachers who are encouraging, empathetic, cheerful and optimistic.
Kindergarten, elementary and secondary school teaching requires a variety of skills and aptitudes such as: • Organisational skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Administrative and record-keeping abilities
• Power to influence, motivate and train children (who can get very stubborn at times)
• Patience and lots of it
• Very good general knowledge and awareness
• An academic bent of mind
As a Teacher you will should be sensitive, empathetic and able to make decisions about individual students' needs. You also need to have a love for learning and the desire and ability to convey your enthusiasm to students.
Qualifications
For nursery and kindergarten, as a Teacher you will need to be a graduate with a certificate/ diploma/degree in nursery training. Preference is given to teachers who are trained for pre-school education.
At the primary level (school), as a Teacher you will need to be a graduate or post-graduate with a diploma/degree in teaching/education. You should also have studied in at least one teaching subject during your graduation years.
Secondary and Higher Secondary teachers should have a graduate/post-graduate degree in the subject and a BEd (Bachelor of Education).
Salary
Government Schools: Gross salary ranges from Rs 20000-30000 a month to start with.
Private Schools: Rs 25000-35000 per month depending on your qualifications.
IB Schools: Rs.35000-45000 onwards per month
Schools which are fully or partially aided by the government and some private schools offers benefits such as Contributory Provident Fund, D.A., insurance, gratuity, medical reimbursement, etc.
Kindergarten and pre-primary schools pay you less, in the range of Rs 20000- 35000 a month. Salary for a college/university teacher is pretty good in the range of Rs 35000-55000 a month to begin with.
Salaries in special education schools range from Rs 35000-45000 a month.
In defence forces, the starting salary is about Rs 30000-50000 per month.
Tuition, either private or in classes forms an additional source of income for teachers.