Education plays a critical role in socioeconomic development of a country. It improves human capabilities. Education accelerates the economic growth through knowledge and skills development. The management of knowledge is promoted as an important and necessary factor for organizational, survival and maintenance of competitive strength. To remain at a forefront, an organization needs a good capacity to retain, organize, utilize and develop employees’ capabilities. However, the extent to which private schools have been able to retain, organize, utilize and develop teachers’ capabilities is in question. This article briefly highlights the challenges facing teachers in private schools in Kenya.
Job insecurity: working conditions of some private school teachers are very poor and strict. This is as a result of pressures from the managers of the school who need best result. Teachers in private schools are threatened to be sacked in case of poor academic performance of students. This makes them leave in fear of losing their jobs.
Poor/low/lack of salary: private school teachers normally receive low salaries and therefore they do not generate money like profit making industries.
Lack of teachers’ union and representation: private school teachers lack unity. They lack union leaders to present their grievances in education sector.
Work load: Every private school is looking for competitive edge to attract top tier students. This exerts pressure to private school teachers as they have to work extra hard for best results production. Thus, their workload is higher as compared to their counterpart in public sector.
Parental engagement: parents in private schools tend to be extremely committed to having say in their child’s education. Teachers are therefore forced to work extra hard and contribute towards the performance of the students.
Maintaining energy and enthusiasm: This is a challenge for a number of private school teachers. The unfavourable working conditions among myriad of other challenges drain the energies of teachers in private schools.
Through relevant stakeholders in education, private school teachers’ challenges should be acted upon to improve the performance of private schools.
This article was presented by Schools Net Kenya representative during the launch of Kenya Private Schools Teachers Association on 16th November, 2018.
Teachers in private schools in Kenya are encouraged to join the association as members and continue to enjoy crucial membership benefits. For more information about becoming a member, kindly contact SNK Support Team via Tel. 0202319748 or E-mail infosnkenya@gmail.com