On Teacher’s Day, Let’s Go beyond the Numbers and a Reality they Mask

Marking Teachers’ Day in Jammu and Kashmir, the article argues that celebratory rhetoric and favourable pupil-teacher ratios conceal stark inequalities in real classrooms, especially in hilly districts like Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi. It shows how geography, poor infrastructure, digital gaps, single-teacher schools and non-teaching burdens undermine learning, and calls for terrain-sensitive planning, better deployment, continuous, classroom-focused training and a shift from counting inputs to measuring actual learning outcomes and teacher effectiveness.