Outline Some of the Key Issues in Education Today Essay

Outline Some of the Key Issues in Education Today - Essay Example Currently, measures of ensuring that all children acquire appropriate education relevant to the prevailing conditions has become of more importance than ever before. Consequently, numerous issues have emerged in the education sector. Some of the major issues include provision of universal education to all children through polices such as Every Child Matters and educating students on global citizenship in order to improve their ability to function in a globalised world. The modern education is faced with several challenges that undermine provision of the appropriate skills and knowledge to the learners. Boyer and Hamil (2008) indentified three main challenges affecting the education sector in developed and developing world. These problems include lack of well motivated teachers, which contribute to high attrition rate, lack of adequate parental involvement in learning of their children and poor reading habits among the students in education institutions (Boyer and Hamil, 2008). These shortcomings have elicited various reactions from educational policy makers, resulting to formulation of policies aimed at addressing the problem. Teaching as a profession is demanding and characterised by immense responsibilities which the society places upon the teachers. In spite of the heavy responsibilities, Altshuler, (2003) notes that teachers are not adequately motivated to perform under such demanding environment, leading to high rate of attrition and declining interest in the profession. Various research studies have been conducted to investigate the duration of service of teachers in the profession. A study conducted by Boling and Evans (2008) in United States established that forty six percent of teachers in the country quit the profession after less than five years. This trend is more pronounced in urban areas where about half of the entire professional workforce quit the profession for other careers (Boling, C., and Evans, 2008). Another study by Boyer and Hamil (2008) established that over ninety percent of newly recruited teachers are hired to replace those who quit the profession because of other reasons except retirement. High teacher attrition has various adverse effects on education. Some of the effects include straining the available resources allocated for the education sector. Boyer and Hamil (2008) noted that schools spend considerable amounts of financial resources while searching and recruiting new teachers, a situation that drains their budgetary allocations considerably. Uradan, Solek, and Schoenfelder (2007) estimated that schools in United States spend about $ 7 billion annually in the process of recruiting, hiring and retaining teachers in the country. These financial resources could be invested in other important academic ventures, such as investing in modern technology and purchasing of other necessary teaching resources. High teacher turnover rate undermines the quality of education provided to the children. Bransford, et al ( 2009)argue that the trend denies the profession considerable skills, when well trained and experienced teachers leave the profession for other pursuits. Consequently students receive poor quality education, which ultimately undermines their future progress. Ward and Eden (2009) attributed the high rate of teacher attrition to working in a demoralising but demanding environ