By Aparna S
September 20, 2025: Teaching and medicine are both noble professions — the latter deals with life at hand, while the former shapes life on the go.
In India, teacher training courses cover pedagogy, subject knowledge, classroom management, and child psychology. But are we truly preparing psychologically healthy adults for one of the most emotionally demanding jobs in the world? Mounting evidence suggests the answer is no.
A teacher’s mental health directly affects not only student academic outcomes but also their psychological well-being and overall personality development.
This highlights how adult stress “leaks” into the classroom atmosphere. Globally, studies during and after the pandemic show widespread anxiety, depression, and stress among teachers, often in double digits, and Indian data reflect this trend.
Psychological screening
India has made important strides in school mental health — for example, the CBSE’s guideline to appoint counsellors and build wellness ecosystems, and the southern Indian state of Kerala’s ‘UNARV’ school mental health initiative are strong examples.
These efforts build capacity and normalise help-seeking among students. However, most programs focus on students; robust psychological screening before teacher enrollment and ongoing support for educators remain missing.
Prevention is better than a cure. Early psychological screening can identify vulnerabilities such as personality disorders, anxiety, depression, or substance use that may impair classroom performance.
Schools are ideal settings for early identification and systematised mental health action. Unfortunately, teachers’ mental health is often overlooked while interventions primarily target students.
Classroom aggression
When teachers are well, students do better—both emotionally and academically. Psychological screening for teachers should ideally follow a two-step process: starting with validated self-report measures for common conditions like personality disorders, depression, anxiety, and stress, followed by confidential clinical evaluations.
Including this in pre-enrollment health checkups would be even more effective.
Role-specific risks, such as burnout, exposure to classroom aggression, sleep disruption, and ineffective coping mechanisms, must be assessed independently and referred to for appropriate intervention. School HR and placement departments, as well as teacher training colleges, should be well-informed and equipped to manage this process.
Normalising psychological screening is key to reducing stigma. It is not a pass-or-fail test but a supportive step aimed at identifying, assisting, and preparing teachers rather than weeding anyone out. Ethics and confidentiality must be upheld at every stage.
Healthy adults teach better
There is no trade-off between well-being and performance — this is increasingly recognised worldwide. Healthy adults teach better, and children thrive.
Adding respectful and confidential psychological screening before teacher enrollment can create an academic environment that is both promising and protective.
For every child who walks into a classroom, there should be a compassionate, psychologically healthy adult on the other side of the desk.
(Dr Aparna S is a consultant psychiatrist and an Assistant Professor at the Believers Church Medical College Hospital, Tiruvalla, Kerala. Views expressed are her own and not of an organisation or company.)
