The kindness tax
The teachers who never say no cover the most — and tire first.
PUPILTEAMS · LEAVE, COVER, WORKLOAD
It’s 7:40 am. Two teachers are out, and Mr Imran is covering again.
Upload your timetable tonight and mark who’s on leave. In half an hour you’ll see tomorrow’s cover drafted by your own rules — same subject first, fair across the term — and not one teacher scored.
Tonight: tomorrow’s cover, drafted fairly, ready to approve.
Cover desk · todayreplies in your language · quiet after 8 pm
Friday
Reply, or hold 🎙 to speak
Is this your starting point?
I’m and what hurts most is
WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY
Absence isn’t an exception — it’s a daily timetable event.
of teachers in rural Indian public schools absent at unannounced visits
Muralidharan et al., Journal of Public Economics 2017 · ideas.repec.org · pubeco v145
global primary-teacher attrition in 2022, double the 4.6% of 2015
UNESCO & Teacher Task Force, Global Report on Teachers 2023 · teachertaskforce.org · global report highlights
Indian schools still ran with a single teacher in 2024–25
UDISE+ 2024–25 (Ministry of Education, PIB) · educationforallinindia.com · PIB UDISE+ release PDF
SOUND FAMILIAR?
Cover is decided at 7:40 by whoever answers first.
The kind teachers get every free-period grab. Leave lives in a register and someone’s phone. A class gets “self-study” because nobody knew who was free. And good teachers leave over this — quietly, and never in the exit interview.
Free period, lost period
“Self-study” in 7B is a Maths lesson nobody records as lost.
Leave by thumbs-up
Asked at 10 pm on WhatsApp, approved with an emoji, forgotten by payroll.
HOW IT WORKS
Leave in, cover drafted, load balanced — before assembly.
One staff desk. The software drafts; your vice-principal decides.
1Know who’s free
Leave, timetable and free periods in one register, built from the Excel you already have.
2Draft cover
Drafted by your rules: same subject first, then same grade, fair across the whole term.
3Send the plan
The cover teacher gets the class’s lesson plan, so the period still teaches.
4Keep load fair
Workload shows as a pattern across the term — never a score, never a ranking.
PupilTeamsShe changes a draft? That change becomes a better rule for next time.
THREE WAYS TO START
Draft tomorrow tonight, pilot a fortnight, or hand over the desk.
Each way gives your vice-principal the same thing: cover settled before the first bell, by rules she owns. Choose how much help you want.
For a vice-principal who wants tomorrow sorted before she leaves.
- 1Upload your timetable Excel
- 2Mark who’s on leave tomorrow
- 3Approve or change the draft
- YOU’LL SEE IT
- Within 30 minutes
- WHAT IT TAKES
- Free. No card, no call.
For schools that want leave, cover and load set up together.
- 1A 30-minute call with your vice-principal
- 2We write her cover rules within a week
- 3Day-14 review: periods covered, mornings saved
- YOU’LL SEE IT
- Day 3
- WHAT IT TAKES
- A short paid pilot, credited to year one
For trusts that want one staff desk across every campus.
- 1We load staff and timetables
- 2We run the cover desk with your VP
- 3You approve; we report load monthly
- YOU’LL SEE IT
- Week one
- WHAT IT TAKES
- Set-up plus a per-teacher fee, quoted for you
WHAT YOU’LL SEE FIRST
You’ll feel it the first morning: four absences, four subject-fit teachers, and nobody’s goodwill spent before 7:45.
MAKE IT YOURS
Cover rules that think like your vice-principal.
ONLY AT YOUR SCHOOL
Your vice-principal’s judgement, written down and hers
She talks through ten past cover decisions and why. PupilTeams turns them into plain rules — “Class 10 never with a stranger in March”, “same subject before a free period” — that she reads, edits and signs.
- Rules in plain words she signs
- Every draft shows which rule applied
- Who’s free and fit — never a score
THINKPRINTMrs Shetty’s cover rules · sample
SituationRuleWhyOverride
Class 10 absenceSame-subject teacher onlyBoard yearVP
Teacher already covered todaySkip themFairnessVP
Exam weekInvigilators firstCalendarPrincipal
Written from her past decisions; she edits any rule in one tap.
Your timetable, as it is
Import Excel or your ERP export. Your period names and bell times stay.
Your leave policy
Casual, earned, duty, exam leave — your categories, your approval chain.
Growth that stays private
Training suggestions go to the teacher alone. Leaders see patterns, never people.
WHY IT GETS BETTER EVERY TERM
Every morning teaches the next one.
Each draft your vice-principal accepts or changes sharpens the rules, so the next morning’s draft needs fewer changes. Over a year, your school builds a written memory of how it stays calm.
It learns from her overrides, so the draft sounds more like her every week.
- 1Leave logged earlyOne tap, any time
- 2Cover draftedBy her written rules
- 3She decidesAccept, change or override
- 4Rules sharpenOverrides become better rules
- 5Load stays fairPatterns, never people ranked
- ↻ Your school’s cover memory
WHERE IT LEADS
Once you can see who covers, you notice what gets taught.
We only raise it when your own numbers do — with the maths, and no pressure.
WHEN YOU NOTICE
Three in ten covers or more ask for the class’s lesson plan.
PupilTeachTHE MATHS · AN EXAMPLE
e.g. 20 covers a week × 40 weeks = 800 periods that still teach a year
WHEN YOU NOTICE
Student attendance is still taken on paper in five or more classes.
PupilCampusTHE MATHS · AN EXAMPLE
e.g. 1 coordinator × 45 min a day × 220 days ÷ 60 = 165 hours back a year
WHEN YOU NOTICE
The principal builds a staffing report by hand three or more times a month.
PupilInSyncTHE MATHS · AN EXAMPLE
e.g. 3 reports a month × 6 hours × 12 months = 216 hours back a year
RUN BY A SCHOOL · BALLARI · SINCE 2001
We’ve done 7:40 cover ourselves. Here’s what we sign.
PupilTree is a working school group in Ballari, running classrooms since 2001. Founding schools get founding terms, a named person on WhatsApp, and a hand in shaping the desk — and no teacher is ever scored on it.
Founding terms
Founding-school pricing, held for three years.
Stop on day 14
Mornings not calmer by your own measure? Stop, with all your data.
Staff room first
We show it to your teachers before it goes live.
No scores, in the contract
No ranking, no league table, no appraisal use — in writing.
WHAT WE’LL TRACK WITH YOUPeriods covered by subject-fit teachersMinutes to settle coverCover load spread, as a patternLeave approved before the day
QUESTIONS
What your staff room will want to know.
Didn’t see yours? Ask on WhatsApp — a person replies, usually within the hour.
Ask on WhatsAppNever. Workload shows as a pattern for fairness. No scores, no leaderboards, no appraisal use — it’s in the contract.
How many of tomorrow’s covers can go to a subject-fit teacher?
Upload your timetable tonight and mark tomorrow’s leave. In half an hour you’ll have the answer — and a draft to approve.
No scores, no rankingsCover slips print tooEasy exit by day 14