Crisis In Education: Guest Teachers Are Exploited

In the recent years, the government has claimed grand reforms in the education sector, claiming it is rooted in Hindutva philosophy and civilisational nationalism. They said it elevated teachers to a supreme position. However, underneath it lies an unsettling reality.

Over the past two decades, teachers across India have seen their autonomy, freedom of expression, and dignity steadily eroded. Increasing state interference has reduced them to administrative functionaries, burdened with clerical work due to the lack of support staff. Harassment, discrimination, arbitrary terminations, and institutional exclusion have become increasingly common in academia.

Guest teachers are the most affected. Despite having equal qualifications and performing the same work as permanent staff, they face systematic exploitation and are treated as inferior within their own institutions.

Yet these developments rarely shape public debate. Political influence and media narratives often silence sustained scrutiny. Teachers remain the backbone of India’s education system, but the conditions of these lesser-known educators demand urgent attention.

Recently, the Odisha government issued guidelines allowing the engagement of retired academics as guest lecturers in non-government-aided colleges, triggering widespread outrage among young aspirants and reviving concerns over the insecurity of contractual teaching jobs. Odisha has seventeen public universities with 2,073 sanctioned faculty posts, of which 1,404 remain vacant. The same shortage persists in colleges, where 1,753 guest teachers were hired for the 2025–26 academic year alone. This pattern is not unique to Odisha but reflects a nationwide trend. Public educational institutions are increasingly hollowed out, not only of permanent teachers but also of ideas. This signals a deepening crisis in India’s education system.

India’s ambition to achieve Vikshit Bharat by 2047 must begin by addressing the crisis facing its teachers. While higher education enrolment and student intake have expanded in recent decades, and the National Education Policy was introduced in 2020 to improve quality, teacher recruitment and welfare have largely stagnated. Persistent vacancies have weakened teaching, research, and learning outcomes, particularly in public institutions relied upon by students from marginalised communities. As education remains central to constitutional values and democratic strength, prolonged teacher shortages threaten the entire system.

This crisis cannot be resolved through the routine engagement of guest teachers. Structural reform and regular appointments are essential. Instead, recruitment has increasingly been delayed or politicised. Guest teachers, appointed on short-term contracts to fill vacancies or cover leave, often undergo the same screening as permanent staff and, in many institutions, now outnumber them, yet remain trapped in insecure, semester-based employment.

If guest teachers meet the same qualifications and undergo the same selection process as permanent staff, the state’s refusal to appoint them on a regular basis reflects political unwillingness rather than scarcity of talent. Teaching and non-teaching posts remain vacant despite a large pool of qualified, unemployed candidates.

Because education is for the public good, it is increasingly deprioritised. Lack of political willingness and an informed public are some of the reasons for this.

Although guest teachers are appointed to fill teaching vacancies, they are routinely assigned administrative and clerical duties due to staff shortages, without pay or recognition. This exploitation strips teaching of its dignity, undermines well-being, and weakens knowledge production. Their work is often credited to permanent staff, while their own contributions go unacknowledged and their voices silenced.

The credit for this work was transferred to the permanent members of the institutions. Institutions even celebrate and glorify the works when they are presented as being done by their permanent faculty. While the real contributions by the guest teachers were largely ignored, voices were silenced, and their fate hangs in the mercy of the authorities of the institution. This system has systematically denied them every right and opportunity they deserve.

When teachers are denied basic rights, fair pay, and respect, meaningful participation in the education system becomes impossible. The resulting mental distress and demoralisation have serious consequences for democratic life, which depends on education that treats young professionals as assets rather than expendable labour. Reports of intimidation against teachers underline the depth of this crisis.

Gauri, a guest teacher at a government college, said that beyond her teaching duties, her Head and Principal wanted to share credit in her research publications. When she refused to include their names, she was threatened with dismissal.

Ram, who teaches at a leading academic institution, explained that excessive paperwork places an added burden on teachers, often leaving them unable to take leave. During a scheduled NAAC visit, all holidays were cancelled and staff was required to work on Sundays. Despite already being overworked, guest teachers were assigned both teaching and non-teaching duties.

Devi recalled her experience at the previous college where she worked as a guest teacher. When she was seven months pregnant, her doctor had advised rest due to medical complications in her pregnancy. Her request for leave was rejected. She continued working. But one afternoon, she was rushed to the hospital after sudden pains. She is now unemployed, traumatised by the past and forced to enure household chores. This is the price she had to pay for being a woman in academia.

In 2024, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment revised minimum wages, setting daily rates at ₹783 for unskilled and ₹1,053 for highly skilled workers. In contrast, guest teachers’ pay in India remains arbitrary, varying widely across institutions. Their monthly salaries range from as little as ₹2,000 to ₹60,000, paid as a consolidated sum or depending on the number of classes taken.

It’s not just about financial insecurity, the mental trauma faced by the guest teachers is largely ignored and undermined. Some institutions have mandated 7-hour biometric attendance mandatory for the guest teachers, although there is no government directive to do so. As teachers are paid based on the classes taken in a month, the teachers are forced to be present on campus for seven hours. This is both illegal and illogical. But, it is known that the purpose lies in ensuring these teachers do non-teaching labour. Even when classes were suspended, guest teachers were forced to come to do non-teaching work for which they were not paid.

Universities must give up this exploitative mindset that treats teachers as temporary workers. This attitude reflects systematic exploitation of their labour, marginalisation and humiliation by the authorities. Even the discontinuation of the job during the summer break leaves their families vulnerable to necessities. When institutions function, thrive and prosper on the contributions of the guest teachers, it is ethically incorrect to leave them jobless for two months during summer breaks. Their pay has not been increased in many years, despite inflation.

Guest teachers from marginalised castes, tribal communities, and women face deeper exclusion. Caste discrimination persists subtly, while sexual harassment and misconduct against women often go unreported due to fear of dismissal. Policy-makers have shown persistent indifference to these realities, leaving the most vulnerable unprotected.

The Odisha government’s decision to appoint retired faculty as guest teachers instead of younger candidates worsens graduate unemployment. Thousands of posts are vacant across all educational institutions in India and the state’s reluctance in announcing permanent positions begs a question that if young teachers leave the profession, isn’t it a crisis in the making.

Guest teachers are mostly young and early-career academics struggling to establish themselves in academia. When they should spend their time advancing themselves in research, they are worried about survival. It demoralises them.

Recent incident in Odisha’s Jeypore where guest teachers were brutally suppressed for demanding salaries which had been delayed for more than seven months is a stark reminder of the worsening working conditions of Guest teachers.

When a state neglects its teachers, it betrays its own future. It is a sign of a broken system; a system that kills their potential while treating them as cheap labour. Teachers are not liabilities; they are assets. A system cannot be built when its teachers are ignored and silenced. Our brightest minds are walking away and choosing safer options. They are not fearful about students; rather, they are fearful about the system that breaks their spirit.

In a country where gurus were worshipped, treating them as second-class citizens within the same academic premise makes a mockery of the institution and our value system itself.

(All names of interview participants have been changed to protect confidentiality)

The author is works in the Department of Political Science at Rama Devi Women's University, Bhubaneswar.