As India looks ahead to its 100th year of independence, the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047 captures the imagination of a nation - an India that is economically strong, socially just, and globally respected. This vision rests on our young people, and their education, skilling, and ability to participate fully in tomorrow’s economy. Our schools are the building blocks of this ambitious journey. Every child who steps into a classroom carries the potential to shape India's future. And the opportunity to harness that potential lies in the hands of the teachers.
Tale of two teachers
Kamla, a government school teacher in Karnataka, struggled for years to engage her students. With large class sizes, limited resources, and student absenteeism, she often felt helpless. Things changed when she found a senior teacher from a nearby school who became her mentor and shared her experiences on overcoming similar problems. With her, Kamla learnt simple strategies- grouping children by learning levels, using local stories to explain concepts, and involving parents in classroom activities. Within a year, attendance improved and children grew more confident. Kamla herself felt confident to take on more challenges. Meanwhile, Vignesh, a teacher in a neighbouring district, faces similar challenges but without support. Cut off from peers, he often feels isolated. “I try my best, but sometimes I feel I am failing my students,” he admits.
The difference between these two stories is not intent, but of presence (or absence) of peer support and mentoring. Both Kamla and Vignesh want their students to be prepared for the future. Their stories show us why mentoring must move from being an exception to becoming a systemic practice.
Why is this urgent
With over 365 million young people between 10 and 24 years old, India has the world’s largest youth population. Our education system is equally unparalleled - nearly 1.5 million schools, 250 million students, and 10 million teachers. Few other countries educate at this scale, across such diverse geographies, languages, and socio-economic realities. With this scale and diversity come deep-rooted challenges. National surveys reveal that every second child in Grade 5 cannot read a Grade 2-level text, and millions of children drop out each year. Even those who complete school often lack critical 21st-century skills for higher education and employment.
The capacity building initiatives for educators are still traditionally designed at the state level, which do not account for the local context and wisdom of the educators. This restricts teachers’ ability to design and lead contextual improvements. In India, there are 100,000+ single-teacher schools. Managing administrative responsibilities along with teaching is overwhelming, and it affects outcomes in classrooms.
Our world is changing constantly, and so is the pace of change in education. New policies, tools, and pedagogies are constantly being introduced, and unforeseen challenges, like the COVID-19 pandemic, floods etc., can disrupt learning overnight. Similar to corporate, where continuous learning is essential for professional growth, training education leaders just once is not enough. They need real-time, continuous learning opportunities that close the gap between knowledge and action quickly.
Mentoring is the missing link
Every day, teachers solve countless challenges - how to engage a distracted student, design assessments that are meaningful, involve parents, or manage nutrition and welfare schemes. Imagine the power of creating communities where teachers can share these everyday innovations, learn from peers, and receive ongoing mentorship. Interactions between educators can centre around the sharing of knowledge, skills, values and best practices.
For instance, a mentor engages in conversation with a group of mentees to facilitate a discussion about best practices for the orientation of new teachers. Another mentor leads a skill-building session on how to facilitate a case-based discussion in classrooms. These interactions can be one-to-one, part of discussion circles, take the shape of peer mentoring or be synchronous or asynchronous. This will lead to an enhanced, decentralised leadership in education and strengthened schools.
The National Mission for Mentoring
Recognising this, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), under the aegis of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Govt. of India, has launched the National Mission for Mentoring (NMM). The Bluebook (blueprint) on NMM has been developed after nationwide consultations and open house discussions with academicians, education administrators, schools, universities, teacher educators, SCERTs, DIETs, principals, teachers and NGOs. This is a systemic acknowledgement that professional development cannot be episodic; it must be continuous and context-driven.
Building on the momentum
As we march toward a Viksit Bharat, mentoring and peer-led capacity building need to become a daily habit. This must be reinforced by systemic and context-sensitive support structures that empower educators at every level. We need both incentives that draw teachers toward better practices, and support structures that reduce unnecessary workloads. This will allow teachers the time, tools, and trust to improve their lessons continually.
PM SHRI Schools Program is upgrading more than 14,500 schools with better labs, libraries, and inclusive, green facilities that can also serve as hubs for nearby schools. This is much-needed infrastructure support for the teachers. NISHTHA and DIKSHA have empowered millions of educators, showing that reimagination at scale is possible. Now, quality, continuity, and classroom translation must be the focus. The best medium is bite‑sized learning with immediate classroom try‑outs, incorporating follow-up mentoring, so coursework turns into quick, visible wins that build momentum.
Teacher Recruitment, deployment, appraisal and promotions are also urgent. A practical approach is to use UDISE+ school ratios to sanction posts where enrollment and subjects demand it, and to pair newly posted teachers with mentors so that support starts on day one.
Uttar Pradesh demonstrates how peer learning becomes more effective. Shikshak Sankul meetings are held monthly with clear agendas, simple sharing frameworks, and oversight to ensure sessions remain practical and respectful of teachers’ time. This kind of cadence, predictable, purposeful, and close to classrooms, makes mentoring feel like day‑to‑day support, not another program layered on top.
Recognition, too, plays a role. Platforms like National Teachers’ Awards work best when they honour real classroom change and peer support. There is an opportunity to connect awards to mentoring groups, showcase what inclusive classrooms and measurable improvements look like, so that praise turns into a playbook others can adopt.
The road to Viksit Bharat
The demographic advantage of India can become our greatest strength or our biggest missed opportunity. Quality education, meaningful skilling, and equitable participation, especially of women in the economy, will decide whether this generation drives the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 or is left behind. At the centre of this mission are our teachers. But they cannot do it alone. They need ecosystems that value their agency, nurture their growth, and enable them to learn continuously.
Because the road to Viksit Bharat will be built, lesson by lesson, in India’s classrooms - and it is our teachers who will lead the way.
This article is authored by Khushboo Awasthi, Co-founder & COO of ShikshaLokam and Co-founder of Mantra4Change and Rucha Pande, Founder & Director at CoLab Global Consulting.