- Astiba Kebongo challenges the culture that treats constant exhaustion as evidence of teachers’ professional commitment.
- She argues that dedication to learners should coexist with family responsibilities, personal wellbeing and life beyond school.
- Kebongo also urges school leaders to create working environments where accountability and staff wellbeing can coexist.
There is a side of teaching that we rarely discuss openly. We talk about dedication. We praise teachers who report early, leave late, take up extra responsibilities and remain available whenever the school needs them. We celebrate those who coach games, supervise activities, counsel learners, attend meetings and carry schoolwork home.
All these are important.
But there comes a point when a teacher must ask: At what cost?
The teaching profession demands commitment, but commitment should not mean abandoning everything else that gives life meaning.
A school needs its teachers. Learners need their teachers. Parents depend on teachers. But teachers also need their families.
A teacher may spend the better part of the day shaping other people’s children while having very little time for his or her own. This is an uncomfortable contradiction that deserves our attention.
When dedication becomes self-neglect
In many schools, the teacher who is always available is regarded as the most committed. The one who leaves immediately after the last lesson may sometimes be viewed with suspicion.
There is nothing wrong with going the extra mile. Some of the best teachers are those who have gone far beyond the minimum requirements of the job.
The danger comes when going the extra mile becomes the only way of working.
A teacher who is constantly exhausted may eventually lose the energy to teach effectively. A teacher who carries every school problem home may have little emotional space left for the family. A teacher who is perpetually available to everyone may become unavailable to the people who matter most.
We should be careful not to confuse sacrifice with success.
The school will continue, but your family is not replaceable
This is perhaps the most difficult truth for a devoted teacher to accept.
When a teacher retires, transfers, resigns or passes on, the school eventually finds a way forward. Another teacher takes over the lessons. Another person occupies the office. The timetable is adjusted and learning continues.
That is how institutions survive.
Families are different.
A child cannot get another childhood with the same parent. A spouse cannot recover years that were lost to excessive work. A family cannot recreate opportunities for conversation, celebrations and ordinary moments that were missed.
This is not an argument for teachers to neglect their duties. Far from it.
It is a reminder that professional responsibility must coexist with personal responsibility.
What will remain when the timetable disappears?
Every teacher should occasionally think about retirement—not with fear, but with wisdom.
There will come a day when there are no lessons to prepare, no examinations to invigilate, no staff meetings to attend and no learners waiting outside the staffroom.
What then?
If our entire identity has been built around the school, retirement can become a difficult transition.
The question is not whether teaching mattered. It certainly did.
The question is whether we also built a life outside the classroom.
Did we nurture our marriages? Did we watch our children grow? Did we maintain friendships? Did we develop interests? Did we invest wisely? Did we remain connected to our communities? Did we take care of our wellbeing and spiritual life?
A successful career should make retirement more meaningful, not more frightening.
Stephen R. Covey’s emphasis on “putting first things first” offers an important lesson here: not everything that demands our attention deserves all our time. Some things are urgent; others are deeply important.
Family often falls into the second category.
Unfortunately, important things can be postponed for years because they do not always demand our attention as loudly as workplace responsibilities do.
We should stop making exhaustion a badge of honour
There is a culture in some workplaces where being constantly busy is treated as proof of importance.
“I have no time.”
“I leave school at night.”
“I carry work home every day.”
“I have not taken a proper break.”
Sometimes such statements are made with pride.
But exhaustion is not a professional qualification.
A teacher can be hardworking without being permanently overwhelmed.
Good planning, teamwork, delegation and proper use of working hours can make a difference. Teachers also need the confidence to recognise that not every task is an emergency and not every problem requires their personal intervention.
The ability to say, “I will deal with this tomorrow,” can sometimes be an important professional skill.
School leaders have a role to play
Work-life balance should not be presented as the teacher’s problem alone.
School leadership matters.
Administrators should recognise that teachers have lives beyond the school gate. A teacher may be an employee of the institution, but he or she is also someone’s parent, spouse, son, daughter or caregiver.
This does not mean lowering professional standards.
Teachers should be accountable. They should prepare adequately, teach effectively, observe professional ethics and put learners first during working hours.
But humane leadership and professional accountability can coexist.
A school that protects the wellbeing of its staff is not a weak institution. It is a wiser institution.
The Bible also reminds us about priorities
For teachers who draw inspiration from Scripture, the Bible offers a useful reminder about family responsibility.
1 Timothy 5:8 emphasises the seriousness of caring for one’s household. Providing for a family is certainly important, but provision is not only financial.
Families also need presence.
They need conversations, affection, guidance, encouragement, prayer and shared experiences.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that there is a season for everything. There is a time to work and a time to rest; a time to serve others and a time to attend to those closest to us.
Perhaps the lesson for teachers is simple: we should not allow one season of life to consume every other season.
Let us redefine what a successful teacher looks like
A successful teacher should certainly produce good results.
But success should not end with examination grades.
It should include character, relationships, wellbeing and the ability to leave the profession with dignity.
We should aspire to reach retirement and still have people who genuinely want us around—not because of our former position, title or influence, but because of the relationships we built.
Let us therefore teach diligently without forgetting to live.
Let us serve our schools without surrendering our families.
Let us support learners without becoming strangers to our own children.
Let us give our best to the profession without giving it everything.
Teaching is a noble calling. But a calling should enrich life, not consume it.
The school will open tomorrow morning. Learners will arrive. Lessons will continue. Another teacher will eventually take over from us.
But our families have only one version of us.
The teacher needs a family too.
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And perhaps one of the greatest measures of a teacher’s success will be this: After years of serving other people’s children, do the people at home still feel that we were there for them?
By Astiba Kebongo
Astiba Kebongo writes on education and teachers’ professional and social wellbeing.
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