The moment you say you are an Assistant Professor in a government or aided college, people immediately calculate your salary with the emotional intensity of chartered accountants conducting a corruption inquiry.
Most seem convinced that college teachers — especially in the Humanities — work for three hours a day and spend the rest of the time peacefully drinking tea under trees because apparently Shakespeare stopped evolving in 1616.
A small reflection on invisible academic labour, endless reading, public misconceptions, and why teaching is one of the most misunderstood professions.
The Myth of the “Overpaid” College Teacher
The moment you tell someone that you work as an Assistant Professor in an aided or government college, there is usually a brief silence. Then comes the expression.
A mixture of admiration, disbelief, and deep emotional suffering caused by your salary.
If the conversation continues long enough, you can almost hear the unspoken thought:
“This person earns that much for taking just a few classes?”
And if you happen to belong to the Humanities departments, the envy becomes even more intense.
According to popular social imagination, Humanities teachers have roughly three or four teaching hours a day and spend the rest of the time peacefully wandering around campus with books under their arms, occasionally sipping tea and discussing poetry.
No laboratories.
No chemicals.
No endless calculations.
No complicated machines.
After all, what possibly changes in Literature or Philosophy once Shakespeare and Marx are already dead?
Apparently, society believes Humanities teachers permanently complete their learning process somewhere around the age of twenty-five and thereafter survive entirely on yellowing notes and nostalgia.
The moment you tell someone that you work as an Assistant Professor in an aided or government college, there is usually a brief silence. Then comes the expression.
A mixture of admiration, disbelief, and deep emotional suffering caused by your salary.
If the conversation continues long enough, you can almost hear the unspoken thought:
“This person earns that much for taking just a few classes?”
And if you happen to belong to the Humanities departments, the envy becomes even more intense.
According to popular social imagination, Humanities teachers have roughly three or four teaching hours a day and spend the rest of the time peacefully wandering around campus with books under their arms, occasionally sipping tea and discussing poetry.
No laboratories.
No chemicals.
No endless calculations.
No complicated machines.
After all, what possibly changes in Literature or Philosophy once Shakespeare and Marx are already dead?
Apparently, society believes Humanities teachers permanently complete their learning process somewhere around the age of twenty-five and thereafter survive entirely on yellowing notes and nostalgia.
The Biggest Misconception About Teaching
One of the greatest misconceptions about higher education teaching is the assumption that classroom hours constitute the entirety of academic work.
Anyone who genuinely takes teaching seriously knows that the classroom is merely the visible tip of an invisible intellectual iceberg.
My father used to repeatedly say:
“When you read, you learn. When you stop reading, you slowly unlearn.”
I understood the full weight of that sentence only after becoming a teacher.
Teaching in higher education is perhaps one of the few professions where the moment you stop learning, you immediately begin declining professionally — even if nobody notices it externally.
And contrary to popular assumptions, this applies equally to Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences.
One of the greatest misconceptions about higher education teaching is the assumption that classroom hours constitute the entirety of academic work.
Anyone who genuinely takes teaching seriously knows that the classroom is merely the visible tip of an invisible intellectual iceberg.
My father used to repeatedly say:
“When you read, you learn. When you stop reading, you slowly unlearn.”
I understood the full weight of that sentence only after becoming a teacher.
Teaching in higher education is perhaps one of the few professions where the moment you stop learning, you immediately begin declining professionally — even if nobody notices it externally.
And contrary to popular assumptions, this applies equally to Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences.
Knowledge Does Not Sit Quietly Waiting for Teachers
Every discipline constantly changes:
new theories emerge,
old ideas are questioned,
interpretations shift,
academic debates evolve,
methodologies transform,
knowledge expands and mutates.
A teacher who thinks:
“I studied this topic ten years ago; now I can teach it forever”
is already intellectually outdated.
Even topics we once knew thoroughly can slowly fade if they are not revisited. A teacher who walks into class without preparation merely because they have “experience” is not demonstrating expertise; they are displaying academic complacency.
Good teaching is not memory performance.
It is intellectual renewal.
Why Good Teachers Prepare for the Same Class Again and Again
Every discipline constantly changes:
new theories emerge,
old ideas are questioned,
interpretations shift,
academic debates evolve,
methodologies transform,
knowledge expands and mutates.
A teacher who thinks:
“I studied this topic ten years ago; now I can teach it forever”
is already intellectually outdated.
Even topics we once knew thoroughly can slowly fade if they are not revisited. A teacher who walks into class without preparation merely because they have “experience” is not demonstrating expertise; they are displaying academic complacency.
Good teaching is not memory performance.
It is intellectual renewal.
Why Good Teachers Prepare for the Same Class Again and Again
Another widespread assumption is that once teachers handle a syllabus for a few years, preparation becomes unnecessary until the syllabus changes again.
But reading does not merely help teachers remember content.
It transforms understanding itself.
The same poem, novel, philosophical text, or historical event changes meaning when reread after encountering:
new theories,
new political realities,
new scholarly discussions,
new life experiences.
The classroom remains alive only when the teacher remains intellectually alive.
Till the final class before her retirement, my research supervisor never entered a classroom without preparing the previous night.
Not because she lacked experience.
But because she possessed academic ethics.
There is a profound difference between the two.
Experience alone does not create excellence.
Continuous engagement does.
The Myth That Teachers “Relax” During Holidays
But reading does not merely help teachers remember content.
It transforms understanding itself.
The same poem, novel, philosophical text, or historical event changes meaning when reread after encountering:
new theories,
new political realities,
new scholarly discussions,
new life experiences.
The classroom remains alive only when the teacher remains intellectually alive.
Till the final class before her retirement, my research supervisor never entered a classroom without preparing the previous night.
Not because she lacked experience.
But because she possessed academic ethics.
There is a profound difference between the two.
Experience alone does not create excellence.
Continuous engagement does.
The Myth That Teachers “Relax” During Holidays
Another delightful social fantasy is the belief that teachers completely shut down intellectually during vacations.
Ironically, holidays are often the only periods when teachers finally get uninterrupted time to:
read extensively,
update themselves academically,
prepare research papers,
attend FDPs,
complete administrative work,
revise teaching material,
or pursue research that regular teaching schedules do not permit.
The academic mind does not possess an ON/OFF switch.
A teacher who genuinely loves knowledge remains intellectually occupied even while pretending to be on leave.
The Great Social Panic Over UGC Salaries
Ironically, holidays are often the only periods when teachers finally get uninterrupted time to:
read extensively,
update themselves academically,
prepare research papers,
attend FDPs,
complete administrative work,
revise teaching material,
or pursue research that regular teaching schedules do not permit.
The academic mind does not possess an ON/OFF switch.
A teacher who genuinely loves knowledge remains intellectually occupied even while pretending to be on leave.
The Great Social Panic Over UGC Salaries
Now let us come to the topic that causes maximum emotional damage in society:
UGC salaries.
Yes, higher education teachers receive relatively good salaries compared to many sectors.
But what most people do not know is the bureaucratic absurdity surrounding pay revisions.
Whenever a UGC pay revision is announced, society reacts as if teachers immediately begin bathing in revised salaries and arrears the next morning.
Reality is far less glamorous.
UGC teachers in Kerala often receive revised salaries only after delays extending from two to three years.
I have witnessed two pay revisions since joining service. On both occasions, the revised monthly salary came only years after the revision itself.
As for arrears, the first time they arrived after another five or six years. The second time, discussions about arrears simply dissolved into administrative silence like an abandoned subplot in a television serial.
The Inflation Nobody Talks About
UGC salaries.
Yes, higher education teachers receive relatively good salaries compared to many sectors.
But what most people do not know is the bureaucratic absurdity surrounding pay revisions.
Whenever a UGC pay revision is announced, society reacts as if teachers immediately begin bathing in revised salaries and arrears the next morning.
Reality is far less glamorous.
UGC teachers in Kerala often receive revised salaries only after delays extending from two to three years.
I have witnessed two pay revisions since joining service. On both occasions, the revised monthly salary came only years after the revision itself.
As for arrears, the first time they arrived after another five or six years. The second time, discussions about arrears simply dissolved into administrative silence like an abandoned subplot in a television serial.
The Inflation Nobody Talks About
And this is the part conveniently ignored in public discussions:
what exactly is the value of delayed money in an inflation-driven economy?
If someone owed you Rs. 100 in 2016 and finally paid it in 2026, would it still hold the same value?
Delayed arrears are not generosity.
They are delayed dues.
The Invisible Labour of Teaching
what exactly is the value of delayed money in an inflation-driven economy?
If someone owed you Rs. 100 in 2016 and finally paid it in 2026, would it still hold the same value?
Delayed arrears are not generosity.
They are delayed dues.
The Invisible Labour of Teaching
Perhaps the larger issue is this:
society sees teaching only as classroom performance.
People see:
the teacher entering class,
speaking for an hour,
and leaving.
What they do not see is:
the late-night reading,
the preparation,
the constant updating,
the intellectual anxiety,
the rereading of texts,
the emotional labour of teaching,
the pressure to remain relevant year after year.
Higher education teaching is not merely wage labour.
It is intellectual labour.
And intellectual labour is difficult precisely because most of it remains invisible.
The Lifelong Student Hidden Inside the Teacher
society sees teaching only as classroom performance.
People see:
the teacher entering class,
speaking for an hour,
and leaving.
What they do not see is:
the late-night reading,
the preparation,
the constant updating,
the intellectual anxiety,
the rereading of texts,
the emotional labour of teaching,
the pressure to remain relevant year after year.
Higher education teaching is not merely wage labour.
It is intellectual labour.
And intellectual labour is difficult precisely because most of it remains invisible.
The Lifelong Student Hidden Inside the Teacher
Perhaps that is why teaching is one of the most misunderstood professions.
People see the salary.
People see the vacations.
People see the timetable.
But they rarely see the lifelong student hidden inside the teacher.
And without that lifelong student, no teacher — regardless of salary, seniority, or experience — is worth the classroom they stand in.
People see the salary.
People see the vacations.
People see the timetable.
But they rarely see the lifelong student hidden inside the teacher.
And without that lifelong student, no teacher — regardless of salary, seniority, or experience — is worth the classroom they stand in.
Comments
Post a Comment