Every teacher, regardless of where or what subjects they teach, face their own fair share of challenges. But of course, challenges are not the same in every school, even though they are closely similar and others intersect.
The article below discusses a few of the common challenges that most teachers face, and they include;
1. Poor teacher welfare
Sometimes, some teachers land jobs in schools that are underdeveloped. They do it in order to have a source of income as they target other greener pastures. However, these schools usually have poor welfare of teachers in form of;
- Poor housing facilities
- Bad food
- Inadequate water and other necessities
- Little or no allowances
Teachers with a poor welfare have lots of stress, which usually affects the way they do their job, and sometimes forcing them into premature resignation and sometimes, quitting the job for good.
2. Less pay
This is a global problem. For some reason, the teaching profession is still frighteningly underrated. However, some schools overdo it, especially the underdeveloped private schools. Below are the effects of underpayment to teachers;
- Stress and overthinking during working hours
- Divided attention on their career and side hustles
- Resignation
Some teachers will feel trapped, especially if they haven’t found some place else to go besides their current workplace, and that becomes a major distraction.
3. Ill-stocked laboratory
This poses a huge challenge to teachers of science subjects and ICT. This is because their subjects have a compulsory practical part. With an ill-equipped laboratory, these are the risks;
- Poor performance of students in the subjects
- Makes it harder for teachers to teach with limited resources
- It becomes hard to protect the available equipment from damage when everyone is fighting to use them
This condition can really stress the hell out of every teacher, and all a teacher can do is simply suggest changes, but the decision is in the hands of the administration.
4. Ill-stocked library
Libraries are very important in every school. The more a library is stocked with relevant content, the better. Here are the challenges associated with having an underequipped library;
- Teachers and students have no reference books
- Sometimes, teachers are forced to spend their money on books so that they can offer valuable information
It is so common therefore, for schools with ill-stocked libraries to have cases of underperformance.
5. Learner absenteeism
Whether you like it or not, you’ll always have students that deliberately miss your classes. Some teachers think you can simply swallow it and move on, but it’s not that simple because;
- It causes imbalanced overall performance in your classroom
- Other clean students are subject to bad influence from the absentees
- It makes even the good students weak if overdone
Clearly, it’s a challenge and it bothers every teacher. Some teachers roll call their students, while others issue punishments or forward the case to higher authorities to handle.
6. Inadequate teaching aids
Teaching aids make the job faster and easier for teachers, and the enable students understand and learn faster. This is why every school should have essential stuff like;
- Chalkboards
- Maps
- Charts
- Globes
- Foot rulers, etc
Without teaching aids, there are so many things that could go wrong like;
- Teachers spending more time explaining simple concepts
- Students failing to understand even the most basic stuff
- Teachers taking the blame whenever students fail to understand or claim they don’t understand a topic
However, some schools have enough money at their disposal, meaning they can possibly access any sort of teaching aids they need for their teachers to conduct smooth lessons.
7. Heavy workload
Due to certain reasons, some schools are understaffed, and that’s the usual cause or overworking. In other cases, some schools make it compulsory for teachers to do other things they aren’t paid for, like personally cleaning the compound or teaching extra lessons in the night.
The effects include;
- Stress
- Extreme fatigue
- Burnout
- Negative attitude towards work
- Stress-related diseases like heart disease
8. High costs of living
This factor is not only limited to the school. It can depend on the country’s inflation rate or the school’s location. However, it all goes down to the available resources, and the salary comes into play.
Teachers are usually faced with a whole heavy load of bills that they can hardly cope with unless they have extra sources of income.
9. Undisciplined learners
In every school, there are those learners that are committed to giving teachers daily headaches and heartaches. Undisciplined learners pose a huge challenge in the school because;
- They negatively influence other learners
- Undermine all the school rules
- Sometimes, they put the school on a brink of a chaos outbreak
- Vandalism of school property
In every school, peace and order are very important things to maintain the smooth sail of all education activities.
10. Poor teaching environment
Every school has its own environment, but not all are favorable. Some schools just don’t have what it takes to give teachers a good teaching environment. The flaws include;
- Poor infrastructure
- Inadequate space in school premises and classrooms
- Bad neighborhood, eg being next to noisy places
- Poor electricity supply
While in a poor teaching environment, it’s hard for teachers to teach and students to thrive. This, therefore, poses a great challenge for teachers.
11. Enrolling weak learners
Not to sound discriminative, but every school ought to have a threshold for every admissible student. Unfortunately, some schools are all about the money, so they admit all students indiscriminative of academic potential, leading to things like;
- Unbalanced performance in the classroom
- A situation requiring teachers to put in extra effort
- Weak learners get demoralized when they feel like they’re left behind
12. Poor relationship between teachers and administrators
Lastly, a poor relationship between a teacher and their administrators is a very risky path. This is because it can result into things like;
- Indirect mistreatment
- Segregation among staff members
- Constant criticism and faultfinding
- Unreasonable pay cuts
It’s so hard for a teacher to thrive under this environment, and this usually leads to increased cases of resignations and firing of staff.
Final thoughts;
In every workplace, there is a fair share of challenges, and they’re just inevitable. However, it is important to be able to spot red flags – and that way, you know when it’s time to quit the job and look for somewhere else where you can possibly thrive.