Teaching in a senior high school in Ghana as a teacher gives you the unique opportunity to impart the life of learners even in making their career decisions. Teaching at this level can however be challenging and comes with several disadvantages.
The disadvantages of teaching at the Senior High School level will be discussed thoroughly in this article. Low salaries, poor working conditions, lack of support from the government, and increased workload for teachers are some of the disadvantages of teaching at the Senior High School.
Let’s look at the disadvantages of teaching at a senior high school in Ghana.
Low Salaries
Looking at the entire work of the Senior High School teachers as compared to the salary they receive, it is no doubt to accept the fact that the pay given to the teachers is small.
Below is SHS Teacher's Salary in Ghana
A person working as a Secondary School Teacher in Ghana typically earns around 3,860 GHS per month. Salaries range from 2,050 GHS (lowest) to 5,870 GHS (highest).
According to a report by the Ministry of Education, Ghana the entry-level monthly salary for teachers in Senior High school is ghs1084.00
Salary Comparison by Years of Experience of the Secondary School Teacher in Ghana
Many teachers in Ghana earn relatively low salaries, which affects the quality of education learners receive since low salaries may discourage teacher motivation and job satisfaction. It is no wonder that students nowadays have bad results even after studying for 3 years at the SHS level.
Government can however help to reduce the canker of low salaries given to teachers by either increasing their salaries or supporting teachers financially with incentives and other allowances.
The teachers find it difficult to make ends meet with the amount of money they receive as their salary and this is so because most of these teachers pay utility bills, rent, and sometimes transportation fees themselves, unlike other occupations where employees enjoy free accommodation, transportation, water, and electricity.
Poor working conditions
The quality of education is not only determined by the quality of teachers but also by the conditions in which the teacher works. Working conditions that are well shaped by rewards, good salary ranges, good school leadership, infrastructure, and facilities attract teachers and retain effective teachers as well.
Aside from SHS teachers receiving low salaries they also work in a poor environment. Bad infrastructures and school facilities are very common, and many learners have been seen learning under trees. Most especially the science departments in the SHS do complain most of the time about the lack of teaching and learning materials including microscopes, computers, with some other materials. This makes the work not interesting, teachers fumble all the time to find ways and means to carry out practical work with students.
Some schools lack computer labs, science labs, libraries, and even staff common rooms for teachers. Most rural areas in Ghana lack the necessary educational equipment and infrastructure for children with special needs. One reason for this is low financing within the special education subsectors. Senior High Schools in Ghana in recent times have been submitting a lot of complaints to the Ghana Education Service which when solved can boost the confidence of teachers to give out their best. Looking at the nature of the work when their submissions are rejected or are not looked upon it discourages them.
Working in conditions like this is however not encouraging at all and may reduce the quality of education given to learners. The government is therefore expected to put up more infrastructures and facilities for the Senior High Schools as well as teaching and learning materials to ensure that things move on smoothly for both students and teachers.
On the other hand, attention should be given to teachers and the very complaints or suggestions they make should be highly considered.
Lack of support from the government
The government of Ghana has made efforts to support Senior High School education in Ghana through several policies and school programs which include free Senior High School education. However, problems like provisions of textbooks, and curriculum materials remain the problem. Most SHS teachers buy textbooks all by themselves to teach their students which is not encouraging at all. The government fails to support the schools financially for research and other practical works in the schools. As a country that aims at improving its economic activities we need to invest more in technical and vocational education, it’s only in our education system that a science and a computer lab, technical and vocational departments would be set up without tools and equipment for teaching and learning.
The government must increase investments in education to address these challenges and improve the quality of the Senior High Schools in Ghana.
Increased workload for teachers
Teachers at the Senior high school level have more workload taking into consideration the number of students in the various schools and the number of subjects a single teacher teaches. Economics teachers may not teach economics alone but together with Social studies, considering marking scripts of a large number of students teaching two or three subjects can be very worrying. Senior High School teachers even after closing are supposed to be on campus to check and supervise students' behavior in the campus as well as supervising students during preps. The numerous workload on a teacher may interrupt the quality of education learners receive from the teachers; From preparing lesson notes to lesson delivery, marking of scripts and supervision gives the teachers more stress and will interfere with their work.
To eliminate this particular problem the government of Ghana must employ more teachers into SHS and provide all the necessary teaching and learning materials to the schools.
Low salaries, poor working conditions, lack of support from the government, and increased workload for teachers are some of the disadvantages of teaching at the Senior High School. Some disadvantages of teaching at the Senior high school level is been discussed in this post.
As citizens of the country, we should be much concerned about these challenges faced by the Senior high schools in the country since Senior high school serves as the stage where students are prepared for future careers such as doctors, drivers, teachers, engineers, members of parliaments and many other jobs to ensure that the society is safe when got into the hands of these learners someday. We calling on stakeholders to come to our rescue by demanding better support for the Senior High School Teachers.
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