Teacher's Shortage In The NEK

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Created on Friday, 16 February 2024 19:21

Written by Logan Locke

AROUND THE NEK - Here in the Northeast Kingdom we have a problem that being the lack of teachers in our schools but the question is why? This week I interviewed 3 former educators from the NEK region to find out why.

Over the past week I interviewed 3 former teachers that worked in the NEK region all from different backgrounds and age groups to figure out why It's hard to get and keep teachers in our schools. One reason which is know by most people is that the pay for teachers with the cost of living is not great. The teachers I interviewed explained that they and other friends of theirs that are educators had to work multiple jobs while teaching to make finances work. It was also explained that all the work done outside of school was unpaid, this would include makeing plans for what would be taught in class for future days. As you can imagine that is super frustrating esspecially when your trying to support a family.

Another major reason is the behavior in schools and the lack of help from the households. The oldest of the teachers I interviwed explained that when she started teaching when students would miss behave in school and the parents were made aware of it the parents would repremand their kids and deal with it at home so when they came back to school they wouldn't be acting that way again. Today however this has drastically changed, even the younger teachers confirmed this where now when kids act up in class and the parents are consulted the parents blame the teachers for why the student is acting up. It's clear to many teachers that kids are no longer being repremanded at home or being held accountable for there actions. This has made teachers feel like they are not only having to teach but also police behaviour of the kids and feel like they are raising the kids which takes away from teaching time from class.

 A huge critique that was brought up as well was the over use of technology esspecially during the Covid years. There has been a huge push to use devices in classrooms now and many fights happen between teachers and students when the teacher needs the students to put their phones away. This has caused another wrench in the teaching process because it ruins plans that teachers makes and students can abuse the use of devices in class easily. 

The most interesting peice to come from these interviews is that these teachers are choosing to home school their kids/ grandkids. The reasons that were given are that it makes learning schedules more flexible as well as the content and curiculum that can be taught. Plus this way the students can have learning without being interupted by a student misbehaving in class taking away from their learning time. Another reason there is this huge push for home schoolng is that parents want to instill there morales and there lessons to their own kids rather than outsource it. Of course these teachers have the education, degrees and certifications to teach home school effectivally but it is intresting that educators are now turning to home schooling as well as normal parents.

Ultimatly there are alot of reasons as to why the situation is in it's current state but from what I gathered parents and educators must work together to ensure a good enviorment to teach there students and also that teachers need to be paid more esspcially considering all the things they currently are dealing with.