10 Major Issues Facing Education in 2020

Few would contend that the condition of modern education has a lot of opportunities to get better. However, devising the perfect plan to combat school problems and prepare schools for the present and future challenges is an uphill task. The primary challenge is to discover the underlying causes that are faced by the children while learning.  This challenge, to a limited extent, is because of the way that the issues may change significantly relying upon who is naming them, regardless of whether it is students, guardians, teachers or administrators. So, read ahead for the list of 10 major issues in education that currently exist and needs consistent efforts in 2020 to overcome:

1. Safety: Lack of appropriate understanding of safety rules is one of the major educational problems. Poor assessments of school safety pose critical school safety issues as it relates to the everyday management of the school and needs serious consideration. Over the past few years, schools in the U.S. have seen dozens of deaths due to high-profile mass shootings. This has certainly led to debates regarding the best ways to keep children and schools safe. As per CNN, during 46 weeks in the year 2019, there had been 45 school shootings which are nearly an average of one shooting every week. 32 of such shootings were at the facilities that served Kindergarten through 12th grade. Schools do perform security audits that remain heavily focused on security cameras and emergency plans.  Educational objectives, classroom management, sub-cultural groups, negative behavior cliques, special education, and sexual issues are few of the many aspects which remain ignored during such audits. Therefore, the school’s environment should be analyzed and scrutinized from an educator’s point of view and steps like universal background checks, banning assault weapons and preventing the purchase of guns by mentally ill people should be taken. 

2. Government spending on education: From the list of current issues in education, funding of the schools remains on the top. America’s schools struggle for funds and budget cuts during the Great Recession left almost half of the states in the USA spending less on the schools in the year2016 than what was being spent by them in the year 2007. A cut in the budget means diminished resources for the students, fewer programs and smaller staff in the schools. As per the findings of the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities, as of the 2017-2018 academic year, 29 states in the U.S. were spending less per K-12 student in comparison to what they were doing, a decade ago. 

3. Bullying: One of the challenges facing education that has a profound impact is bullying. Bullies are increasingly making the use of modern technology in order to torment the victims - majorly through the use of social media, texts or through virtual communications. The recent cyberbullying tragedies pose a bigger challenge for the schools to search for ways in order to protect the children from modern bullying. With the ever-rising popularity of social networking, cyberbullying has emerged as a far bigger threat and schools are finding it quite difficult to manage the ramifications of the same. Although the tragic cases of bullying have prompted public schools in the U.S. to review their duties and responsibilities towards the prevention of bullying, both on and off-campus.

4. Poor management of Schools: Ineffective leadership is also one of the critical points in the list of problems in education. Unfortunately, not all school leaders who enter the school are prepared for the role. Leadership is all about developing an understanding of how to get different people to work together, having an in-depth understanding of the learning and building the capacity of all around them. The management in schools fall in several categories as follows: 

-> Poor time management: "Time is the money of learning and it should be dealt with in a similar fashion by the schools as it is considered in the business network." 

-> Decisions not based on data: It is not that sufficient and appropriate data doesn’t exist within the school but the sheer lack of effective and efficient medium to access the same poses a challenge in the management. “If you generally do what you have constantly done, you will consistently get what you generally have gotten." 

 -> Educational committees being approached to settle on choices without basic information. 

 -> Poor utilization of technology to deal with routine tasks: "There is a complete absence of comprehension of how innovation can be used to guarantee that the manager and instructor’s time is spent on teaching the students.

-> Absence of viable on-going intelligent community-wide interchanges: "School authorities should effectively and normally associate with guardians and the community in order to implement effective management.

5. Parent Involvement: Parent involvement is indeed the key to student success and leads to better classroom behavior, playing a pivotal role in education. But parent involvement is an issue in the U.S., where many parents won’t show up the entire year no matter how grave is the issue, whereas some keep on hovering over the teacher and their kids thereby interfering with their education. There are ways by which parents can involve in their child’s education and extend their support, but teachers hardly get that type of involvement and support from the parents. Parents' constructive involvement lifts the teacher’s morale and helps them know a student better. 

6. Not all teachers meet the standard of the modern education system: Can we really expect all the teachers to be tech-savvy or well-versed with technology? Some of the teachers are at the end of their long careers and do not fit the standards of the modern education system, yet nothing much is done to prepare them for the current challenges. In order to render high-quality education to the students, concrete steps need to be taken to prepare the teachers for challenges faced by education in modern times. Education problems in the U.S. include some serious ones like teachers being not adequately trained to teach the current and upcoming generations of students. Training, preparation, and even tests are required to monitor if the teachers meet the standards of the modern education system.

7. Outdated Curriculum: Although huge transformation has taken place in the education system, there are many aspects that remain unchanged. Standardized tests are a big problem. Why? Students should be allowed and encouraged to learn and grow at their own pace. The problem with us is that we are encouraging them to compete against one another and expecting them to meet the standards as everyone else. Honestly, tests and grades do not measure intelligence and put those who lack the test-taking skill, at a disadvantage. 

8. The pressure is On: The pressure to fit-in and achieves success has got the majority of the students under mounting pressure, anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies. The pressure and mental health issues are on a constant rise and kids are not really safe at their school or even home. Moreover, the growing influence of social media has taken a heavy toll on the education and personal life of the students. The best ways to deal with issues like these are therapies, timely counseling sessions, deep breathing exercises along with meditation, yoga and positive self-talk which can really help in the long run.

9. Family Factors: One of the major problems in education is the adverse family situation that impacts the teacher’s ability to teach the students. Principals, as well as the teachers across the schools in the U.S., have consented that what goes back at homes, impact school education. Poverty, violence, divorce, single parents and many other challenges are what students bring along with them to the school. When not properly dealt with, they can have a very adverse impact on the well-being of the student and their morale. Teachers and schools can not do much when parents are not willing to partner with them for the good of their children.

10. The individual needs of those who are low-achievers are not being addressed: On of the most recent and popular trends in education is personalized learning. It is an effective alternative of what we call the “one-size-fits-all” approach of learning in many schools, where teachers deliver the same instructions and set of learning for all the students. We need to realize that students have distinct aspirations, learning needs, cultural backgrounds and pace, which makes personalized learning, a need for today’s learning scenario. The training should correspond to the needs of the individual student. However, in the absence of serious efforts towards student-centered learning, there is an increased risk of falling behind for many students in the U.S. Effective communication and constant interaction is the key to transforming schools and education, so we need to prepare ourselves for that!