Why teachers are expected to sacrifice their families for the sake of schools

Teaching is often described as a calling, a noble profession built on patience, commitment and self-sacrifice. But behind this celebrated image lies an uncomfortable question that the education system rarely confronts: how much of a teacher's family life should be sacrificed to keep a school running?

Across Kenya, teachers are increasingly caught between professional obligations and family responsibilities. They are expected to report early, leave late, attend weekend meetings, supervise extracurricular activities, accompany learners to competitions, mark examinations, prepare reports and participate in school programmes, sometimes at the expense of their personal time.

For some, teaching has gradually become a profession in which being available to the school appears more important than being present for their families.

The problem is not that teachers are unwilling to work hard. Most understand that educating children requires commitment beyond classroom lessons. The controversy arises when extraordinary commitment becomes an everyday expectation without corresponding compensation, recognition or consideration for the teacher's personal circumstances.

A teacher who leaves home before dawn and returns after sunset may spend more waking hours attending to other people's children than interacting with their own. This creates an uncomfortable irony. Teachers are entrusted with nurturing the intellectual, emotional and social development of learners, yet their own children may receive limited parental attention because of the demands of the profession.

School activities do not always respect the boundaries of ordinary working hours. Some teachers are expected to supervise games, attend meetings, organise academic clinics, prepare learners for examinations and participate in school events long after normal lessons have ended.

During examination periods, the pressure can become even greater. Teachers may spend evenings marking scripts, preparing assessment records and compiling performance reports.

In boarding schools, the situation can be particularly demanding. Teachers may be called upon to attend to emergencies, supervise learners at night, manage disciplinary incidents and respond to unexpected institutional demands.

Although some responsibilities are inherent in particular appointments, the question is whether every additional assignment should automatically translate into an obligation to surrender personal and family time. A teacher's family cannot indefinitely operate on the assumption that school responsibilities must always take precedence.

One of the least discussed consequences of excessive professional demands is the emotional cost imposed on teachers' families.

Children need parental involvement beyond the provision of school fees, food, clothing and other material necessities. They need conversations, guidance, affection, supervision and participation in their everyday experiences.

A teacher who consistently misses family occasions, school meetings involving their own children, birthdays and important milestones may eventually discover that professional dedication has come at a personal cost. Spouses may also experience the strain of managing household responsibilities without adequate support.

The situation becomes more complicated when both parents are teachers. Their shared professional obligations can leave the family struggling to coordinate childcare, household duties and personal commitments. Ironically, people who spend their working lives advising other people's children may struggle to find sufficient time to guide their own.

Another contentious issue is the perception that a teacher who arrives early, leaves late and participates in virtually every school activity is more committed than one who observes reasonable professional boundaries.

In some institutions, teachers who decline additional assignments because of genuine family obligations may be regarded as uncooperative or insufficiently dedicated. This creates an unhealthy workplace culture in which professional performance is sometimes confused with unlimited availability.

A teacher's effectiveness should be assessed through professional responsibilities, classroom engagement, learner support, preparation, assessment and other legitimate duties. Remaining in school until late evening does not automatically make someone a better educator. Neither should a teacher's willingness to sacrifice weekends and family occasions become the universal standard against which colleagues are judged.

School administrators have a responsibility to ensure that institutional demands are reasonable, properly organised and fairly distributed.

Principals and deputy principals should distinguish between legitimate professional assignments and unnecessary demands that interfere with teachers' personal lives. Meetings should be scheduled responsibly. Extracurricular responsibilities should be shared equitably, while duties requiring teachers to work beyond ordinary hours should be assessed in accordance with applicable employment regulations and institutional arrangements.

The fact that teaching is a public service does not mean teachers surrender their right to family life, dignity and reasonable working conditions.

Equally, teachers must appreciate that professional responsibilities sometimes require flexibility, particularly when learner safety, examinations and genuine emergencies are involved. The solution is not to eliminate commitment but to prevent exploitation disguised as commitment.

Continued exhaustion can affect teachers' motivation, relationships, concentration and emotional well-being.

A teacher who is constantly overwhelmed may gradually lose enthusiasm for classroom engagement. Frustration can build when professional expectations continue increasing while opportunities for rest and family interaction diminish.

Burnout does not necessarily begin with a dramatic workplace incident. Sometimes it develops through repeated interruptions of personal time, excessive responsibilities and the feeling that saying no is professionally dangerous.

The consequences may eventually extend into the classroom, affecting the very learners whom the additional sacrifices were intended to benefit. A teacher who is emotionally exhausted cannot indefinitely sustain the same level of enthusiasm, patience and creativity.

The teaching profession must move beyond the romanticisation of sacrifice.

Teachers are employees, parents, spouses, siblings, caregivers and members of society. Their professional identity should not erase their other responsibilities.

A school that depends on teachers abandoning their families to remain operational may need to examine its staffing arrangements, management practices and distribution of responsibilities. The government, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), school boards and administrators should promote working environments that recognise the importance of professional commitment alongside family welfare. Teachers, too, must learn to establish reasonable boundaries without neglecting legitimate responsibilities.

Ultimately, the question is not whether teachers should sacrifice for learners. Their commitment is indispensable to education. The real question is whether society can continue demanding that teachers become surrogate parents to millions of children while expecting their own families to survive on whatever time remains.

A teacher's calling should not become a sentence to permanent family absence. The children being educated in classrooms are important, but so are the children waiting for their parents at home.