The Ramblings of an Ex-Teacher

I recently met a friend at a restaurant. I knew her from my teacher training classes we both attended several years ago. We have not met for quite some time. Before three sentences have passed between us, she asked whether I was back in school after the birth of my baby. I told her that I have quit the service. I asked her whether she was still teaching and she said that she has been bumming around without a job for the past few months. I was surprised that she has quit too.

I know that she’s still single and could not make “taking care of children” as an excuse, like I did. I have another friend who quit teaching just after 3 months due to the demanding nature of the job. She hardly has time for her two daughters who were taking major exams that year.

I went on to ask her if she was actively looking for a job, and she said that she wanted to further her studies. Well, that’s another common excuse why teachers quit. But these people are not just making excuses. There are genuine problems in the teaching industry which makes it difficult for teachers to stay in the service for long. Here are some of the main reasons why teachers quit.

Heavy Workload

Teachers have to deal with a heavy workload. They have to prepare interesting lessons to ensure students’ attention are kept. These take a long time and goes beyond the school hours in a day, often dragging into the night. On top of that, the marking of students’ work can kill anyone. There is often an expected number of assignments or projects the students have to complete in a term or semester. While it’s already hard enough to get students to hand in their work, teachers spend a harder time trying to decipher what they are writing about.

Administrative Duties

Teachers are often burdened with administrative duties such as being a form teacher of a class. They have to collect money for this, that and the other. They have to fill in multitudes of forms to get things done. Many teachers complain that the administrative duties are taking up more time than their teaching duties.

Principals

No matter what type of principals you get in your school, there will bound to be some differences in how teachers and principals deal with students, staff and the day-to-day running of the school. Principals are capable of identifying the potentials of teachers. After identifying them, these teachers are often put to the test, usually with more work to see how far they can stretch such individuals. The not-so capable teachers are often left with less work.