“Teachers are not just coping-they’re catalysing. And they’re doing it together.”
Across South Africa, teachers are navigating a daily reality that stretches far beyond what they were trained for. Teaching in overcrowded classrooms. Managing under-resourced schools. Supporting learners facing deep trauma and poverty. And doing so with little recognition, minimal institutional support, and all too often, alone.
These aren’t isolated incidents. This is the texture of the system.
In my work, and through continued engagement with our growing community of Teachers, I have had the privilege of listening to teachers who are doing their best to hold the line. What I’ve heard has moved me deeply. But also challenged me to ask: how do we hold space for teachers when the system doesn’t? And more importantly, how do we ensure they don’t have to carry the burden of change alone?
The Weight Teachers Carry
Let’s start with the truth: many teachers are exhausted.
They’re navigating policy demands, discipline issues, curriculum overload, and the social responsibilities that come with being one of the few consistent adult presences in a young person’s life. Some speak about not having textbooks, desks, or even enough chalk. Others are teaching in classrooms without doors, in buildings with broken windows and leaking roofs.
Many feel emotionally isolated overwhelmed by the scale of learners’ needs and the absence of mental health support for themselves.
“One teacher shared with me, ‘There are days when I feel like I’m drowning. But if I break, who is left for the children?”
The fear of failure, of burnout, and of not being ‘enough’ for their learners weighs heavily on many of the teachers I meet. And yet, they keep showing up. That persistence is powerful, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of their well-being.
Finding Each Other Again: The Power of Networks
In the face of these challenges, teacher networks are becoming essential not just for professional development, but for professional healing. What networks like TeachersCAN offer is not another policy document or checklist of outcomes, but a place to breathe, to speak, and to be heard.
In Izwi Lakho learning circles, for example, teachers facilitate space for their peers to reflect and reconnect with their purpose. These are not workshops with pre-set agendas. They are open, intentional spaces for shared learning and truth-telling. It’s in these spaces that teachers begin to recover a sense of control, self-worth, and community.
When teachers come together in spaces they trust, they don’t just share problems—they co-create solutions.
We’ve seen it time and again: a teacher enters the space feeling depleted, unsure if they’re making any difference. By the end of a few sessions, they’re facilitating conversations, initiating projects at their schools, and mentoring peers. It’s not because they’ve been “fixed”—it’s because they’ve been seen.
Working with Parents: A Relationship, not a Transaction
Another shift I’ve seen is the value of building genuine partnerships between teachers and parents. In the Parent Champions programme, parents are invited into the heart of school life not just as spectators, but as collaborators.
But when we shift from seeing parents as passive participants to active partners, everything changes.
In communities where teachers and parents begin to build trust, I’ve seen a reduction in tension and an increase in collaboration. Instead of blame, there’s empathy. Instead of silence, there’s dialogue. Instead of working in silos, there’s shared responsibility.
“Teachers should not have to act as social workers, psychologists, and community liaisons all on their own. Strong school–parent partnerships can and must lighten that load.”
Networks help lay the foundation for those relationships, offering teachers the tools and confidence to engage parents in ways that are dignified and co-creative.
From Coping to Catalysing
What has emerged most powerfully from these engagements is that teachers are not waiting to be saved. They are leading the change they want to see. But they’re doing it in ways that are often invisible to the formal system, mentoring colleagues in staffrooms, creating informal support WhatsApp groups, organising parents around school needs, and leading after-school programs despite zero compensation.
The role of a teacher network is to recognise, validate, and amplify this work.
When teachers begin to see their everyday leadership as a form of activism, they begin to own their power in new ways. They start advocating not just for learners, but for each other. They speak up in policy spaces. They write. They mobilise. And they do it not because they have to but because someone believed in them, stood with them, and created space for their voice.
A Message to the Ecosystem:
As a country, if we’re serious about supporting teachers, we must invest in the ecosystems that support them. That means recognising the role of teacher networks not as an add-on, but as an essential part of a thriving education system.
“If we want a just and resilient education system, we must start with the people who hold it together-teachers.“
Looking Ahead
As I continue to travel across provinces, facilitate sessions, and engage both online and in person, I carry with me the stories of countless teachers. Stories of courage, frustration, joy, and quiet resistance. Stories that remind me that while the system may be broken, the people within it are not.
They are whole. They are hopeful. And they are ready to lead-if we let them.
By Steven Mollo
Teachers CAN – Network Engagement Lead
