Teachers' Day may bring flowers, cards, handmade gifts and messages of appreciation, but once the celebrations are over, a more difficult question remains: what does it really mean to acknowledge a teacher?
Teachers today are expected to teach, guide, counsel, organise, assess, manage behaviour, adapt to technology and help children navigate emotional and social challenges.
Conversations with teachers and students at Jyoti Sroat School (JSS), Step By Step, Shekinah Academy in Mawmuthoh and Roimon Memorial English School show that a teacher's work does not end when the school bell rings.
Sometimes it means lesson planning and paperwork. Sometimes it means staying behind to help a struggling child, finding a different way to explain a concept or simply listening.
For teachers, the profession is about much more than academic results. For students, it is about having someone who notices when they are struggling, encourages them when they lose confidence and teaches lessons beyond textbooks.

Seeing the child before the lesson

At Jyoti Sroat School, Ms Hanan Patricia Sooting, an English teacher for the Upper Primary level, believes teaching begins with understanding the child. Every student has different strengths, challenges and learning needs, making it impossible to approach everyone in exactly the same way.
For Sooting, creating a safe environment where children can learn and express themselves is as important as delivering a lesson. Teachers help develop confidence, curiosity, discipline, visual thinking and communication skills, while preparing children for life beyond the classroom.
But that responsibility is becoming harder as teachers take on more administrative work, record-keeping, data monitoring and organising activities. She wants recognition that reflects the actual work teachers do - through reduced workloads, better resources, improved salary structures, stronger pension provisions and professional development.
On artificial intelligence, Sooting does not see AI as an enemy but believes students must learn to use it wisely. Technology should be a learning tool, not a shortcut. A student may get an answer instantly without understanding it, making the teacher's role in encouraging critical thinking even more important.
She does not believe AI will replace teachers. Technology may handle functions such as generating questions or providing basic information, but empathy, encouragement, classroom management and recognising when a child is struggling remain human responsibilities.

The teacher as guide and facilitator

Ms Shahnaz Sohliya, who teaches English to primary-level students at JSS, sees a teacher as a mentor, guide and facilitator. A teacher must recognise the knowledge a child already possesses and use it as a starting point for further learning.
Before learning can happen effectively, Sohliya believes teachers must understand a child's emotional state. A student who lacks confidence or feels anxious may not learn in the same way as another child. Teaching therefore requires understanding individual abilities, talents and emotional needs.
She points to growing paperwork and administrative responsibilities as major pressures. Smaller classes, more staff and stronger institutional support, she says, would allow teachers more time to prepare lessons and build relationships with students.
She also calls for greater financial security, including timely salaries and a proper replacement system when teachers take leave.
Sohliya sees value in AI and digital tools but warns against excessive dependence. Story writing, reading, writing on the board, hands-on activities and direct interaction remain important. For her, the question is not whether technology belongs in the classroom, but whether it should replace the thinking education is meant to develop.

Learning to nurture, not just teach

At Step By Step, Ms Monica S. T. Lyngdoh, a primary-level Maths teacher, compares teaching to gardening. A gardener provides a seed with the right soil, sunlight and care; teachers similarly nurture children through encouragement, values and guidance.
With 30 or 40 children in a classroom, understanding every student can be difficult. Some may struggle with confidence while others learn differently. Lyngdoh says teaching therefore requires patience, empathy and a willingness to listen.
She acknowledges the heavy workload but says lesson planning remains essential. Teachers need empathy and cooperation from society, administrators and parents, especially as they deal with children's emotions and behaviour while often putting their own problems aside.
On technology, Lyngdoh believes AI can make information easily accessible but excessive use may affect independent thinking. A machine can provide information quickly, she says, but a teacher can explain it according to the particular child sitting in front of them.

Resilience from the classroom

Her colleague, Ms Phibakor Shabong, a primary-level Computer Science teacher, believes the challenges of teaching have also taught teachers resilience, something they can pass on to students.
Managing 30 or 40 children, their moods, emotions and behaviour, while maintaining discipline and assessing individual abilities requires considerable energy and patience.
Shabong believes teachers must adapt to new responsibilities without losing the central purpose of education. She is cautious about dependence on AI, which may affect originality and independent thinking when students rely on it for everything.
For her, technology should complement rather than replace traditional teaching methods.
Appreciation, too, need not be extravagant. A simple "thank you" from a parent can mean more than an expensive gift when it recognises the extra time a teacher has spent helping a struggling child. What teachers need, she says, is everyday acknowledgement and empathy.

The teacher as a second parent

At Shekinah Academy in Mawmuthoh, Ms Darilang Pyngrope, an English teacher in Nursery and upper-primary classes and Environmental Education teacher for Class IX students, describes teachers as second parents.
For younger children, teachers help them understand right and wrong, behaviour, interaction and confidence. The responsibility goes beyond textbooks to guiding, comforting and setting an example.
Pyngrope rejects the idea that teaching is an easy profession. Much of the work remains invisible, and parents and teachers must work together because a child's development cannot rest on one side alone.
She believes digital and conventional methods should complement each other. Technology can make lessons more visual, but direct explanation, discussion and traditional interaction should not be abandoned.
For Pyngrope, Teachers' Day appreciation should not mean children asking parents for money to buy gifts. Respect, discipline and good behaviour throughout the year matter more.

Teaching in a digital age

Dr Carrienia Kharbithai, Assistant Head of the Day Scholar Section at Shekinah Academy, teaches Mathematics and Science to Class IX and Value Education from Classes I to VIII.
She believes a teacher's role is ultimately to help shape the future citizen a child becomes, beginning with love and trust. Children who feel safe with teachers are more likely to open up.
Shekinah uses digital tools extensively, with teachers receiving training. Such tools can make difficult concepts easier to visualise, but Kharbithai also recognises their limitations.
The pandemic showed the difficulty of teaching without direct interaction, while excessive screen dependence can make it harder to know whether a student has genuinely understood something.
AI presents a similar challenge. Students may obtain the right answer without understanding the concept behind it. A teacher, however, can observe hesitation, ask questions and change an explanation accordingly.

When teaching follows you home

Kharbithai also challenges the idea that a teacher's working day ends when school closes. After managing classes and students with different abilities and emotions, teachers still have books to check, tasks to complete and lessons to prepare.
The work often follows them home, while they continue thinking about how to make learning more creative and meaningful.
Yet she believes additional school activities can also help teachers and students learn together. The answer, she says, is neither to return entirely to the past nor move completely into the digital future, but to understand what works best for the child.

A multi-tasker in the classroom

At Roimon Memorial English School, Ms Banylla Kharbithai, who teaches in the lower primary section, describes a teacher as a multi-tasker.
A teacher may become a mother when a child feels lonely, a mentor when a student needs direction and a guide when a young person learns to navigate life beyond academics.
But the profession has become increasingly demanding. Teachers are expected to teach while handling administrative work, counselling students and organising activities. Behavioural challenges and changing social dynamics have added to the burden, while support has not always kept pace.
Much of this work remains invisible - from preparation and paperwork to emotional support and finding new ways to help struggling children.

What students see

Students, however, notice more than adults may assume.
At JSS, Class X student Aiborlang Nongdhar acknowledges the pressure on both teachers and students. Teachers must complete the syllabus, while students balance subjects, homework, examinations, tuition and expectations from school and family.
Yet he believes teachers remain essential even in an age of AI, Google and YouTube. Technology can provide information, but teachers can recognise when a student has not understood, encourage them and push them beyond their comfort zone.
Nathaniel Lyngdoh, also from JSS, similarly says teachers can recognise the difference between finding an answer and understanding a concept. They remain important because they help shape students' futures and encourage them when confidence is low.

Lessons beyond textbooks

At Shekinah Academy, Class IX student Evershine Lakiang sees teachers in an especially personal way. As a residential student, he spends much of his time with them, studying, eating and sharing everyday life.
For him, teachers are much like parents. Their concern extends beyond school hours, including students' safety and wellbeing. This is something AI cannot reproduce.
Phibaniar Kharkongor, also a Class IX student, says teachers teach patience, kindness, humility, discipline and hard work. Students are also exposed to practical activities and skills beyond conventional lessons.
For Kharkongor, teachers are like a candle that burns to give light to others - a reminder of how much teachers are expected to give without their work always being fully recognised.

Appreciation that lasts beyond one day

For students, genuine appreciation is not necessarily about expensive gifts. Lakiang believes teachers value effort more than money, with handmade cards, drawings or something created by a student often carrying greater meaning.
More importantly, appreciation should be reflected in everyday behaviour through respect, good manners, hard work, discipline and kindness.
Kharkongor believes Teachers' Day should not be confined to September 5 only. At JSS, Nathaniel Lyngdoh echoes the sentiment, saying students can show respect every day rather than limiting it to cards and greetings.
It can also mean making a teacher's job easier rather than adding unnecessary demands. The message from both teachers and students is similar: teachers are not necessarily asking for grand gestures; they are asking to be understood.

So, what does acknowledgement really mean?

Across the four schools, there are differences in teaching styles, environments and attitudes towards technology, but there is also common ground.
Sooting wants recognition that reflects teachers' additional work. Sohliya calls for smaller classrooms, adequate staffing and greater support. Lyngdoh asks for empathy and cooperation, while Shabong points to simple, everyday appreciation.
Pyngrope emphasises respect, discipline and a strong partnership between parents and teachers. Kharbithai stresses love, trust and genuine relationships with students, while Banylla Kharbithai points to the widening gap between teachers' responsibilities and the support they receive.
None of these concerns can be addressed by a Teachers' Day greeting alone. Teachers do not want to be placed on a pedestal for one day and forgotten for the other 364. What they seem to want is something more ordinary, and perhaps more difficult: understanding.
Teachers need parents to recognise that education is a shared responsibility, schools to understand that paperwork and additional duties take time away from students, and students to realise that being pushed to work harder often comes from a teacher's belief in their potential.
Above all, society needs to recognise that teaching is not simply a job that ends when the final bell rings.

Beyond the applause

The flowers wilt, the cards are put away and the Teachers' Day messages disappear beneath newer posts. But the teacher returns to the classroom the next morning, ready with another lesson, another child needing encouragement and another set of responsibilities waiting after the bell.
Teachers do more than deliver information; they build confidence, discipline, curiosity and values.
AI and digital platforms may provide answers and information, but a teacher sees the child behind the answer: the silence, hesitation, lack of confidence or sudden change in behaviour.
Perhaps, then, the real acknowledgement of teachers cannot be confined to September 5.
It lies in the respect shown on an ordinary Monday, parents recognising the work done beyond school hours, and schools providing teachers with the support and resources they need.
Teachers' Day may celebrate teachers, but the real acknowledgement begins the day after it ends.