Read the passage and answer the following questions:

Traditionally teachers have enjoyed a position of great respect in our country. The religious leaders and social reformers have been addressed as teachers of the people. Hundreds of thousands of teachers are still held in esteem by their pupils and the community. However, on the whole the status of teachers has diminished during the last few decades. The reasons for this are not difficult to find: deterioration in their service conditions, the isolation in which teachers work, phenomenal expansion of the educational system, lowering of standards of teacher training, a general impression that a very large number of teachers do not perform their duty properly, changes in the value system in society, etc. The status of teachers has had a direct bearing on the quality of education, and many of its skills can be ascribed to the indifferent manner in which society has looked upon the teacher and the manner in which many teachers have performed their functions.