According to a new 35-country global survey-based report, India has found its place among the world’s top 10 countries for valuing its teachers.

‘Reading Between The Lines: What The World Really Thinks of Teachers’ observed that India was sixth when it comes to people’s implicit, unconscious and automatic views on the status of teachers in the country.

The analysis, released by the UK-based Varkey Foundation last week, found China, Ghana, Singapore, Canada and Malaysia ahead of India.

It examined the automatic impressions of volunteers when asked to indicate as quickly as possible whether, for example, they think teachers are trusted or untrusted, inspiring or uninspiring, caring or uncaring, intelligent or unintelligent, among other word associations.

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“This report proves that respecting teachers isn’t only an important moral duty – it’s essential for a country’s educational outcomes,” said Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation and the Global Teacher Prize.

The report is built on the information gathered by the Global Teacher Status Index (GTSI) 2018. 

The report, however, also finds that teachers generally enjoy higher status in richer countries, and in countries which allow a greater fraction of public funds to education.

In India, government expenditure on education is 14%. 

The report coincides with the announcement of the finalists for the 2020 Global Teacher Prize, which includes Ranjitsinh Disale – a teacher from a village in Maharashtra who is in the running for the USD 1-million annual prize, to be unveiled later this year.