Hey everyone! I am Hendra Senjaya, from Indonesia. Currently teaching CIE Cambridge, AS/A Level Business 9609.

What are your current challenges being a teacher/educator in your institution/city/country? How do they influence (or even restraint) your teaching?

For example, one of the biggest challenges for teachers here is the complexity of regulations and curriculum that change from time to time. Sometimes, just right before we settle down with a curriculum system or mode, the regulations change again. It is challenging since the time constraint to adapt and implement can be quite short. While the practices at the schools have been implemented differently for the past few years.

It creates such confusion, uncertainty, and unnecessary exhaustion for everyone. Which limits our students to actually focus on what are necessary to face the 21st century learning environment. Even working environment.

Please share your thoughts, and experiences here. Thank you!

In my opinion, students should train and equip themselves with analytical thinking process, due to the information that will flood them from various, and easy to access sources of information. They should be able to identify, sort, and summarize the information based on their needs and necessities.

The second skill, that perhaps students should instil and become more incumbent in their learning process is on how to integrate the use of AI responsibly and positively. Refusing or underestimating the use and integration of AI into their learning journey and working process, will make them an inept learners. Being able to process and integrate AI in producing a high quality of works professionally will enable them to compete in the future.

I am Hendra Senjaya, I am from Indonesia. Currently I am teaching CIE Cambridge AS/A Level Business 9609. I am teaching secondary students, and this year I am teaching the Grade 10 and Grade 12 students.

My favorite part of my job is when I could lead my students to explore the deeper understanding of concepts and applications in business environment. Not only to cover our textbook topics, but also the recently activities happening around us. Business environment is a fast-pacing evolving, and a dynamic realm where a lot of different elements in a society interconnected with one another.

When I'm not working, I enjoy watching movies, and playing computer games. At times, I will just browse the internet looking for various interesting topics whether it relates to my subject of teaching, or just to fulfil my personal interests.

Good day, Irina! This sounds great! Forum like this will allow teachers and educators around the world to build collaborative works outside our rigid or restricted syllabus or curriculum.

Which perhaps would continue beyond the timeline of this contest.

@Oojala-Tasneem Thank you for sharing your experiences. What are your suggestion for those who might be in the same situation as you are?

How much support do the school and government offer for teachers to overcome such challenges?

My fellow educators, thank you for all of these sharing! From the responses, there are some repeating or similarities points or factors that most of us are facing or familiar with.

1. Lack of resources, due to internal limitations or external limitations (regulations, government's funding, political reasons, socio-cultural circumstances).

2. Academics and parental expectations that could lead to overloading and overlapping responsibilities, which at the end could create exhaustion for the teachers.

3. The ever-changing and growing curricula, which from time to time could create confusion and uncertainties of the future plan or progress for the schools and their teachers to focus on their apparent challenges and responsibilities. It is because, at times, the changes are not supporting positive progression, instead, it gives more unclear directions within our own region (local) or nationwide.

In my humble opinion, the most fundamental and most urgent factor is to aligned the involved parties in education. Both the government and schools or educational providers should envisioned the same values, objectives, and plannings.

As long as there are misaligned or even contrasting values or objectives, these challenges will always hinder the progress and growth of education. At times, the needs of teaching community could even be used as a vessel to gain some political objectives, which is actually sad.

Turning or directing these needs to private sectors could also serve as two-sided blades. At one side, the speed of progress could be said faster in some context. However, on the other side, the costs of practicing such approaches could be high. At the end, the parents and the students will be faced with such high tuition fees. In some regions, the high costs of education is preventing or limiting access to education.

Thank you for such detailed sharing! These points could serve as a to-do list, or checklist for us to deliver a holistic delivery of lessons!

One other challenge is for educators to find the most appropriate sources of learning and/or collaborating with other educators.

With the vast growth of ICT, and exposure to information nowadays, it could be an overwhelming situation where teachers are overloaded with options or possibilities. At times, it can be quite difficult to decide which could be the best and most appropriate source of learning.

Not only context-wise, but also the application of such enrichment process. Choosing sources would also mean getting the right feedback methods to follow-up of what we deliver in our classes/sessions.

The apparent flow of ICT possesses both advantages and disadvantages for educators and students. A group of students will have a wide variety of backgrounds, which influences the way students respond to topics, the transfers of knowledge, and the conducts of assessments.

What are your most evident challenges in preparing, or guiding your students for next decade?

While the common objectives of gamification are application of concepts, and enhanced learning, what are your most current attempts/approaches in inserting gamification in your classes?

1. What are your biggest challenge(s) in inserting gamification in your daily or day-to-day sessions?
2. What were your biggest accomplishments in using gamification in your subject?
3. What are your suggestions/encouragement for other fellow educators that are interested in inserting gamification as one of their learning tools?
4. Were they cost-effective, or how much did it cost you to prepare?

I am a firm believer that students will learn more and deeper when they could experience or implement the concepts using a medium while having fun with their peers. Even the duration of the gamification segment is short, however the impact of their learning journey will instill the true application of the topics/concepts.

So, let's learn and share together here.

@BUSHR43f4bb18a0 said in What are your current (or future) challenges in teaching?:

@Hendra Many educators face similar challenges like limited resources, high expectations, and constantly changing curricula. The most important step is aligning goals between governments and schools. Without shared values and clear direction, progress in education will remain slow and uncertain. We must work together to ensure education remains accessible, fair, and focused on real growth.

Your sharing resonates the struggles from a lot of educators around the world. The differences of objectives and limitations from the stakeholders around the school could even hinder the progress of education that is much needed.

Sometimes education community is trapped in between two raging parties with their own agendas. Their shared values cannot be aligned with one another, be it for a political reason, or just simply a factual restrictions on the field.

It has prevented a fair access to education, fundings, or even training. In a vast country with a large number of provinces, with their own regional culture values, struggles, and needs; it has created an unequality to education. Even in just two neighboring municipalities, we could find a contrasting circumstances where the struggles to access a viable and fair quality education is hard to obtain.

What we could do to offer supports for our students amidst these circumstances is to seek assistance and encouragement from other fellow educators to find more ideas, engaging activities, or materials for assessment. Government do offer assistance, however, to some extent it could be a slow process, due to some other limitations they are facing. There should be more consortium of educators such as this forum where we could arm in arm helping and assisting each other, beyond our country borders and timezones.

@NICK_06c40849a4 said in Should education be free at all levels?:

@Ridafatima95 Yes, many believe education should be free at all levels— from primary school to university—because it’s a basic human right and a powerful tool for personal and social growth. When education is free, more people have the chance to learn, regardless of their background or financial situation. It helps break the cycle of poverty, reduces inequality, and builds a stronger, more informed society.

But others point out the challenges: Free education requires a lot of funding. Governments would need to invest heavily in schools, universities, teacher salaries, materials, and technology. Without proper planning, this could lead to lower quality or overcrowded classrooms.

That said, many countries have shown it’s possible to offer high-quality, free education with the right policies and priorities.

In the end, education isn't just a personal benefit—it lifts up whole communities. Making it free at all levels could be one of the smartest investments a society can make

Absolutely agree! The idea and notion of free education is great, it will help nations to solve their current and future challenges in term of workforce population. However, such policy will require a tremendeous amount of funding. While we still have nations waging wars against each other, which will make their military spending taking a big chunk of annual budget.

Be it a government funding, or a consortium between public sector and private sector, the idea of providing free education is still far from reality, sadly, for many countries. Only a very small number of nations whose government could provide free education for its citizens.

@Bousl2336873cb4 said in What are your current (or future) challenges in teaching?:

@Hendra Hi
One of the key challenges in teaching today and even more so in the future is keeping up with the diverse needs and learning styles of students in a rapidly changing world. Teachers are expected to blend traditional methods with emerging technologies, personalize instruction, and foster critical 21st-century skills like problem-solving, collaboration, and digital literacy. Managing large class sizes, limited resources, and growing mental health concerns among students can also make the teaching environment more demanding. Looking ahead, adapting to new AI-driven tools while maintaining a human connection in the classroom may be one of the most important balancing acts educators face. Teaching is no longer just about delivering knowledge it's about inspiring, adapting, and empowering learners for a future that’s still unfolding.

Thank you for your sharing, That is one interesting topic that many perhaps don't talk about, which is the class sizes. Tho there is a recommended number of students per class, sometimes we will end up accommodating more than that.

It could pose another challenge for teachers since large size classes would make the delivery of the lesson, interaction of the students, and learning supervision becoming another challenge. I am not saying that large class sizes are bad, but they are making the whole teaching and learning conduct becoming more challenging.

What are your approaches or perhaps succesful implementation of class management when you are teaching a large class sizes?
Btw, what is the number for your school or region to consider a class as a large size? For me, any classes that have more than 25 students are considered a large size.

Tho, I couldn't remember how my high school classes were since we had about 40 students averagely back then.

While the common objectives of gamification are application of concepts, and enhanced learning, what are your most current attempts/approaches in inserting gamification in your classes?

1. What are your biggest challenge(s) in inserting gamification in your daily or day-to-day sessions?
2. What were your biggest accomplishments in using gamification in your subject?
3. What are your suggestions/encouragement for other fellow educators that are interested in inserting gamification as one of their learning tools?
4. Were they cost-effective, or how much did it cost you to prepare?

I am a firm believer that students will learn more and deeper when they could experience or implement the concepts using a medium while having fun with their peers. Even the duration of the gamification segment is short, however the impact of their learning journey will instill the true application of the topics/concepts.

So, let's learn and share together here.

@MUHAMd831eec012 said in What are your current (or future) challenges in teaching?:

@HIRAC405752f6f0 said in What are your current (or future) challenges in teaching?:

@Hendra Hi Hendra! A key challenge is adapting to diverse student needs with limited time and resources. It can limit creativity and deeper engagement in teaching.

Totally agree! The nature of needs sometimes aren't met with enough of available resources, or time. With the vast growing of ICT, and diverse backgrounds of our students, their needs have created so many combinations that would require specific approaches.

Teaching in classes using visual aids are no longer a problem nowadays, however, now we are being challenged to find the best or most suitable presentation of it. Some students are good with listening to podcast or auditory learning. While some need visual stimulation through video presentation, etc.

Gaining the advantage of the technological development, students themselves now shaping their own characteristics in learning. Study group now can be done via the internet, video conferences, etc, however not every student participating could learn as much as the others who are being stimulated well by the video conference itself.

These different needs could take a lot of time of preparation and reducing our focus and ability to create a deeper engagement in teaching.

@Sanaa said in Entrepreneurship at school:

We held a class market where students created and sold products with recycled materials.
How do you nurture entrepreneurship and creativity in your students?

We have the similar event or program at our school. We let them to create their own homemade products or produces to be sold at the school for a few days.

As I teach Business Studies, I always emphasize the fact that everyone is doing trading/transaction everyday to my students. It goes across different age groups, and cover a vast amount of different things we buy/sell each day.

I let them to discuss with their groups on what to sell/make. I only remind them one key factor: What makes your product stands out in the market?

Since several booths might end up selling the similar items or products, I challenge my students by asking such question. Some would come up with the way they promote it; some others did it with a different way of packaging, etc etc.

@Mariya
Of course a lot and more educators are using AI nowadays. It provides a lot of resources and ideas to arrange or plan the lessons or activities.

Regarding choices, it depends on what you are looking for or what you need. There are some distinctive purposes between ChatGPT, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, etc.

AI for students are great for providing them enrichment materials, task or questions related to the topic, and even finding alternative approaches of answering certain questions. It also helps students to summarize some textbook concepts, and are also possible to be accompanied with examples.

However, the over-use of AI is of course the dependency to technology, which could make students (or teachers) to start feeling demotivated to do things on their own. There is a strong downside from the use of AI in which we could just rely on prompts for more things we should do or finish.

Then there is the biggest challenge of all, plagiarism. Without equipping the students with adequate understanding and skills, copyright infringement is prone to happen. Academic dishonesty could jeopardize a lot of people, and in the long term, even corrupt and ruin the future generation.

We should always consistently campaign the proper ethical issues in classes. Reminding them the consequences of plagiarism in short or long term context. It should be followed by our demonstration of how to keep things honestly in term of submitting works, etc.

The nature of self honesty should be instilled within the students. Without this, the exposure of AI to their daily lives and activities, will just tempt them to start committing plagiarism. It could end up like a wild fire.

Schools should setup a special body or program whose responsibilities are to prepare students to accept, use, and adapt these technologies with the right understanding on lawful practices.

Sadly, in many society, copy-pasting AI-generated text and to be claimed as one's work has been seen as something in a normalcy way of to do things.

@BUSHR43f4bb18a0 said in What are your current (or future) challenges in teaching?:

@Hendra Many educators face similar challenges like limited resources, high expectations, and constantly changing curricula. The most important step is aligning goals between governments and schools. Without shared values and clear direction, progress in education will remain slow and uncertain. We must work together to ensure education remains accessible, fair, and focused on real growth.

Your sharing resonates the struggles from a lot of educators around the world. The differences of objectives and limitations from the stakeholders around the school could even hinder the progress of education that is much needed.

Sometimes education community is trapped in between two raging parties with their own agendas. Their shared values cannot be aligned with one another, be it for a political reason, or just simply a factual restrictions on the field.

It has prevented a fair access to education, fundings, or even training. In a vast country with a large number of provinces, with their own regional culture values, struggles, and needs; it has created an unequality to education. Even in just two neighboring municipalities, we could find a contrasting circumstances where the struggles to access a viable and fair quality education is hard to obtain.

What we could do to offer supports for our students amidst these circumstances is to seek assistance and encouragement from other fellow educators to find more ideas, engaging activities, or materials for assessment. Government do offer assistance, however, to some extent it could be a slow process, due to some other limitations they are facing. There should be more consortium of educators such as this forum where we could arm in arm helping and assisting each other, beyond our country borders and timezones.

@Rafia-Khokhar said in What are your current (or future) challenges in teaching?:

What I experienced ,emotional and Social Support for Students is also a big challenge,
helping students with trauma, anxiety, or other mental health issues and acting as mentors or counselors without formal training
Any one who had such experience?

That is correct, at times, our students might experience or struggle with their trauma, anxiety and other mental issues, which sadly are caused by accessing social media accounts. Their young age are the most vulnerable segment that could be influenced or swayed easily by a few inappropriate postings.

Body shaming, insults, or other offensive remarks that are shared openly or privately through these means of telecommunication technologies are now, unforunately, happen a lot amongst students.

There have been several occasions on my end, where students would find us to be the place they are looking for comfort, advices, and support. To some points, several circumstances or I may use the word, cases, are beyond our capability since we don't have the proper qualitifcations and trainings.

However, the possibilities of these cases happening around us, amongst our students, are growing greatly. The freedom of choosing and using telecommunication means to communicate, share, or connect amongst teenagers could become double-edged sword for them.

It is such a dilemmatic situation for schools and their managements. These cases should be delicately handled, with proper steps or procedures, which most teachers are not aware of. However, to provide such additional coaching sessions are not always the most viable option. It will add more hours and workloads for a lot of teachers to handle while some have more than enough on their plates.

The facts that some students would just choose any teachers they are comfortable to talk to, also gives another challenges for the schools. The role and functions of school guidance and counselors would be blurred or overlapped by such notion from the students. While at the same time, the teachers could not instantly refuse or direct the students to thei school counselors.

In my experience, I would usually listen to their sharing. If things are beyond my ability to provide consultation, I would offer my students the options to either see and talk to the school counselors or experts from outside of our school such as psychologists.

Based on my experience, this could be done via sessions with some real evidences. I am teaching CIE Business for AS/A Level, so there are always several occasions where I could share to my students some real unlawful practices in business world where the prepetrators use technologies as their main channel.

Scamming and phishing are the most common to be found that related to our business context. I take it in three simple steps, the first one is that I show them the real cases involving some unlawful activities that used technology, then I shared with them the empathy and responsibility that one should show or do when such things happen, and lastly but not the least important, we discuss on how to stay safe and not become the victim of scamming and phishing.

We have daily cases involving these two acts and mainly happen via WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail or links in social media.

To equip them and also to answer the thread, I will share with my students about the uses of softwares, forums, and apps, that can help me to navigate safer on the internet. They are taught to be a responsible internet citizens by not forwarding hoaxes, illegitimate news, etc.

@Oojala-Tasneem Thank you for sharing your experiences. What are your suggestion for those who might be in the same situation as you are?

How much support do the school and government offer for teachers to overcome such challenges?