Most government teachers see their job as simply to teach five lessons.

When we arrived at Jana Uddhar, this culture was so ingrained that a teacher who did not have a lesson first period, was not expected to turn up at school until second period. And a teacher who did not have a lesson last period, could go home as soon as their last lesson was finished.

So we’re trying to change that culture, so teachers see themselves as teachers of the whole school, for the whole day.

First, we’ve banned late arrivals and early departures. Everyone has to arrive at 9.55am and no one can leave before 4pm (with occasional exceptions). This is not an outrageous demand on our part, simply an expectation that teachers follow the government’s own rules.

We’ve begun an assembly rota, so that all the teacher take turns at leading assembly. We’ve organised groups of both primary and secondary teachers to plan our community event and our School Improvement Plan. And we’ve requested secondary teachers to take substitute lessons for primary teachers and vice-versa.