This study comes at a pertinent moment in the history of education in India, when there is a lot of pressure to improve the quality of schools and ensure that children learn. The Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 mandated pupil-teacher ratios (PTRs) and teacher qualifications, and indicated what is a conducive environment for teaching and learning (Government of India 2009). Equally significant is that the RTE Act and Justice Verma Committee (2012) mandated a teacher eligibility test (TET) as the first step in the recruitment of all teachers, whether contract or on grade (Government of India 2012). In addition, several state governments have reviewed their policies on contract teachers; some others are hiring contract teachers without any long-term perspective on what would happen to them.