Hem Bishwakarma

I have been working as an English Teacher in an Academy for more than a decade and a half. Many people ask me what I was credited for during my professional years. My answer to them is that I earned nothing but a bunch of frustration in my teaching career.

My teaching career starts when I finish my ten-plus-two-level. I began teaching helping very young kids in primary schools with general knowledge and English conversation. I was paid a small amount that could at least buy my whole month’s snacks hardly. Then to satisfy my economy, I had to quit and shift to the next academy.

I was luckily employed to teach social sciences there. But the money they provided and the other facilities were worst even before. I could see them in expensive cars whereas I never could buy a bicycle for my one-hour on foot travel to school. However, I could buy two plates of food for a day.

It’s been years that I am supporting many school-going children with knowledge and inspiration. Some relatives ask me what I earned till now, where have I bought a piece of land or made a house. I laugh at them. They think that a private school teacher can make a house of his own with the allocated salary!

Recently, the coronavirus affected jobs and people’s lives. Our benefits were cut down. We were not provided timely salaries so that we could manage our homes. Instead, we were said that the owners were in a big problem of the economic crisis during the lockdowns. And we accepted and empathized with their lamentation. We did not do anything except wait till the schools reopen.

By the grace of God, schools have reopened, but we are still not paid well. I have a one million debt to pay. I don’t know when I will be able to pay it back. Sometimes, I think of leaving the teaching career but I am known of what shall I do if I come across the profession. Sometimes, I think of going for foreign employment and sometimes being so far from the situation being alone and aloof to a place where there would be no one and nothing.