Problems, Challenges and Issues in Teaching Profession

 

Problems, Challenges and Issues in Teaching Profession

Kaman Singh Tamang

Introduction

Teaching is a noble profession. Since the teachers have a great influence on the lives of children, they are said to be second parents. Teachers burn themselves like a candle and give light to others. In a sense, teachers are great role models because students imitate a number of good traits of their teachers. Though it is a noble profession, it has a lot of challenges. In this fast changing world, teachers face a great deal of challenges since there is explosion of knowledge every second. There is emergence of new technology and new methodology in teaching every now and then. Teachers have to keep themselves updated with these all. Otherwise, they cannot adjust themselves with the new challenges in teaching and they may get a tag of an outdated teacher.

Problem of teaching profession is not only new technology and methodology; teachers have to undergo a number of other challenges. They have to address the learning need of every child. They have to satisfy the school administration, students and parents. They have to collaborate with the colleagues. They have to work in stressful conditions. Yet, their payment is not so good as compared to their workload. Moreover, the dignity and social height of the teachers is not as expected in the context of Nepal.

There are several challenges in teaching profession. I have gone through some of the articles written on this matter. Some of the findings of the writers have been presented below:

Stacy Thomas in his article entitled "What are the Challenges in Teaching Profession?" (2019), points out following challenges.

·         Incentives and appreciations

·         Student behaviour

·         Heavy paper work

·         Class size

·         Applying same syllabus and teaching methods

·         Many roles

·         Time Constraints

·         Upgrading themselves

·         Health and stress

·         Collaboration

Likewise, Parimala Tadas in her article entitled "The Challenges Faced by a Teacher" (2019), mentions following challenges of a teacher:

·         Knowing their students well

·         Understanding the different learning abilities and capabilities of students

·         Motivating and encouraging the students when they underperform

·         Building and effective communication channel between the management-parents-students.

Similarly, Barakatali K Halakeri in his article entitled "Professional ethics and issues in teaching profession"(2018), pinpoints following challenges.

·         Improving the professional status of teaching

·         Improving the teaching curriculum

·         Engaging the students

·         Better pay for teachers

·         Absence of incentives

·         Bureaucratic work

·         Class size

·         Development options lacking

On the basis of the insights from these three articles and my own experiences, I see following challenges in teaching profession.

1.      Updating and upgrading teachers

Teaching is different from other professions in many respects. To be a successful teacher, one needs to undergo untiring efforts. Since the impact of globalization and innovations in teaching is huge, teachers have to update and upgrade themselves. Government and other concerned agencies have to provide this opportunity to teachers through teacher training, workshops and other sharing platforms and forums. Then only, teachers can keep abreast with the latest technology, methodology and innovations in teaching and perform better.

 

2.   Incentives, appreciations and better pay

Teaching is really a tiring job. Teachers have to work long hours in a stressful situations every day. Besides teaching, they have to do a lot of extra work such as planning their lessons, assigning work for students, checking their work and giving feedback, organizing extracurricular activities, conducting parents' meeting and dealing with them, dealing with special need students except in regular class and many more. However, teachers do not get much appreciation for their work. They do not get incentives for their extra efforts. Their pay scale is very low in the context of Nepal. With this salary, they cannot live a good life and maintain standard. So, gradually they become frustrated in their profession. Ultimately, it hampers own growth and the development of their students.

 

3.      Developing professionalism

Although teaching is a noble profession, teachers are yet to be professionalized. In the context of Nepal, professionalism is lacking in teaching. Most of the teachers, but not all, engage in teaching just for time pass activity in the government schools. They are reluctant to get updated and utilize the innovative ideas in their teaching. Especially, in the government backed community schools, teachers, but not all, lack professionalism. They are engaged in political activities in one way or the other rather than developing their professional career. Not only this, teachers do not show good discipline and dutifulness towards school administration. Rather they are involved in groupism for their unethical and unreasonable benefits. On the part of government too, there are several shortcomings. Government doesn't have proper plan for academic and ethical development of the teachers. Monitoring and evaluation system is very poor. Performance based promotion is lacking. Those who are near and dear to political authority get promoted in spite of being irresponsible, incompetent and inefficient in teaching. This hampers the career development of the genuine and honest teachers. So, developing professionalism is a challenging issue in teaching profession.

 

4.      Dealing with diverse students

It is also one of the major challenges in teaching profession. A school is a miniature society where students from different background come to pursue education. They are diverse in terms of their caste, religion and linguistic background. They are diverse in term of their socio-economic status. Moreover, they are different with respect to their age, interest and learning ability. A teacher has to deal with all these diverse students and give a satisfactory output which is really challenging.

 

5.      Collaboration-Being a bridge between management-parents-students

Teachers have to be bridge between management, parents and students. It is the sole responsibility of the teachers to ensure collaborative efforts of these three for a better output through lively function of the institution. Therefore, teachers face a great challenge in this regard. The changing trend in schooling of children is that nowadays, parents are closely connected to their children's learning. They are equally aware of the activities of the teachers in the school with regard to the learning of their wards. So, the teachers have to keep up-to-date records of their students and inform the same to their parents. At the same time, teachers have to be in line with the school management. Sometimes, there comes contradictions between them and it is teachers who have to balance and settle those contradictions. Management, parents and students do not appreciate the efforts of the teachers and if the teachers do a minor mistake sometimes maybe due to human error or technical problems, then they blame the teachers entirely. Hence, being a bridge between, management, parents and students is a challenging work.

 

Conclusion

There are several problems, challenges and issues in teaching profession. In spite of their untiring efforts, teachers are not able to gain a certain socioeconomic status. Teachers themselves are also not updated with the recent trends in education and the use of ICT in teaching. Teachers are not united and effortful for their professional growth and development. So, the government is also indifferent towards it. Dealing with the students with diverse background is a challenge for teachers. Yet, they have to handle it. Last but not the least, maintaining collaboration with school management, parents and students is not less challenging. To address abovementioned problems and challenges, teachers themselves should initiate to become better teachers. Government and the concerned agencies and authorities should play their roles effectively to maintain the nobility of teaching profession.

 

References

Halakeri, B. ( 2018). Professional ethics and issues in teaching profession. National Journal 

        of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, www.nationaljournals.com

Shrestha, R. (2019). A Resource Material for Secondary English Teachers. Kirtipur: Sunlight

       Publication

Tadas, P. (2019). The Challenges Faced by a Teacher: Readers' Blog, by the Times of India,

         www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Thomas, S. (2019). What are the challenges in teaching profession?

         www.elephantjournal.com