The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #161865   Message #3849624
Posted By: Senoufou
09-Apr-17 - 05:39 AM
Thread Name: BS: why teachers despair and quit
Subject: RE: BS: why teachers despair and quit
I've been a teacher all my working life. However I retired many years ago, so I'm not up-to-date with conditions nowadays. However, even then there were new problems for the staff by the shedload. Here are some of them:-

1. far too much 'accountability' resulting in endless forms, paperwork, assessment and documentation. This detracted from actual hands-on time spent teaching, and I suspected was never read or acted upon by anyone.
2. The National Curriculum. A stultifying teaching-by-numbers system which divided subjects into indigestible bites to be delivered exactly as prescribed, with no leeway for inspired teaching.
3. Behaviour and lack of respect from pupils. Swearing openly at staff, misbehaving in class, not completing homework, disrupting lessons. Controlling a class sufficiently in order to teach anything was virtually impossible unless one had a very firm character and much experience.
4. Offsted inspections by people who appeared to have little idea about teaching, and often little experience. They descended in droves (in teams of about twenty for our small primary school) and poked their noses into everything. One accepts that inspections are necessary, but these were ridiculously extreme and served only to unsettle and stress out the staff.
5. Entitled attitudes of both parents and pupils. One was continually challenged by belligerent parents, often rudely and without respect for our expertise and qualifications. Even violence was sometimes threatened.
6. Teaching methods involving group or even individual tuition in classes of 35. Chaotic and unproductive.
7. Salaries for graduates at a very poor level compared to other professions.
8.Extremely high stress levels resulting in exhaustion, breakdowns and sick leave, depression and resignations, especially from younger staff who found coping difficult.