Who cares about teachers? Tutors confront mental health crisis

Teachers in Nyanza create support networks to address mental health challenges. [iStockphoto]

The teacher who spends the morning calming a distressed learner, the afternoon marking hundreds of books and the evening preparing lessons may return home carrying a burden no one at school noticed.

Behind the confidence expected in the classroom, some teachers are dealing with family conflicts, financial pressure, demanding workloads, difficult work environments and the emotional weight of learners' problems.

Yet when the school day ends, there is often no one asking the teacher a simple question: Are you okay?

This question is now at the centre of conversations among teachers in Kisumu and Homa Bay counties, who are creating their own support spaces to confront mental health challenges they say have for years remained largely hidden within the education system.

Through the She for She Teachers Network, a women-led community-based organisation, teachers are coming together to talk about their experiences.

For founder Jenice Achieng, a teacher at St Gregory Koru Girls in Kisumu, the need for such a space became apparent from the experiences of teachers around her.

The network therefore provides a space where teachers can share their experiences, listen to colleagues and identify possible solutions.

Some meetings are physical while others are held virtually, allowing teachers from different schools to remain connected. The group also brings in experts to discuss specific areas of mental health and allows teachers to share their experiences.

Achieng says the approach is based on the understanding that mental health challenges do not arise from one source.

Pressure at work can combine with financial difficulties, family problems and social expectations until a teacher becomes overwhelmed.

“If the pressure is emanating from your place of work, then it requires everyone in that place of work to play their part, to ease the burden off your shoulders. If it is emanating from your family, then it requires everyone else,” she says.

The teachers say one of the biggest gaps is that mental health discussions in schools have traditionally focused on learners.

Schools have guidance and counselling departments, but these are primarily designed to support students. Achieng says teachers are left asking who supports them when they are the ones struggling.

“We have a department called the Guidance and Counselling Department, but that's mainly established to support the students. Who takes care of us as teachers? That is our biggest question,” she says.

The question comes against a backdrop of growing concern over mental health in Kenya.

Data cited from the World Health Organisation and Kenya's Ministry of Health indicates that one in every four people seeking healthcare in Kenya has a mental health condition.

Kenya's mental disorder prevalence is estimated at 4.4 per cent, with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse among the conditions contributing to the burden.

Suicide remains a major concern, with men accounting for nearly 80 per cent of suicide deaths in national data.

Teachers are part of this wider population, but their profession presents additional pressures.

A Teacher Wellness and Engagement Research Report launched in Nairobi in May 2026 showed the extent to which financial and emotional pressures are affecting educators.

The report, developed from a survey by the Kenya National Union of Teachers in collaboration with Knightwise Human Capital, found that 97 per cent of teachers live from one pay cheque to another without savings, while 92 per cent struggle to manage unexpected expenses.

It also found that 88 per cent struggle with debt repayment without affecting their standard of living.

On mental health, 60 per cent of teachers reported experiencing burnout, 18 per cent were in financial distress and 12 per cent reported suicidal thoughts.

For teachers interviewed in Kisumu, these figures represent real experiences in staffrooms and classrooms.

Jael Achieng, a teacher of English, Literature and French at Ogande Girls in Homa Bay County and the She for She Homa Bay chapter leader, says the mental wellbeing of teachers should receive the same attention given to learners.

“We always talk about the child and the mental wellbeing of the child. But there is a gap for the teacher. When a teacher is ill mentally, it is transferred directly to the child,” she says.

She says teachers may be absent, withdrawn or unable to perform normally, but colleagues may not always stop to ask what is happening.

“There is a lot of pressure to work. You have pressure in school, the society; you know the name of the teacher. There is a way in which society expects you to behave,” she says.

She says some teachers work in environments they consider toxic, with pressure coming from leadership and administration.

The fear of being judged or facing consequences can make teachers reluctant to speak openly about their struggles.

“If you speak, then you're going to be sacked. So the environment is toxic, there is a lot of work, and nobody wants to listen to it,” she says.

Jael wants the Teachers Service Commission, which employs teachers, to strengthen mental wellness services and make them more accessible outside major towns.

She says some teachers who require rehabilitation or mental health support may not have the money or means to travel long distances for treatment.

“We are asking the Teachers Service Commission to take that into consideration so that we bring the centres, mental wellbeing centres, to provide more capacity building, to provide more platform for the teacher, so that the teacher is sensitised, the teacher knows what to do,” she says.

She believes mental wellness centres should be available at county level and, where possible, closer to schools.

“In my school, there are over 2,000 students. If all of them come to me as a teacher, and I also have a challenge, then where do I go to as a teacher?” she asks.

Her concern is that a teacher cannot effectively support hundreds or thousands of learners while struggling silently with their own mental health. The issue has also begun receiving greater attention from the TSC.

On September 27, 2026, the commission placed the physical and mental wellbeing of teachers at the centre of its nationwide Teacher Run.

Speaking during the event at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi, TSC Commissioner Antonina Lentoijoni challenged teachers to prioritise their wellbeing, noting that their health and welfare have implications beyond their personal lives.

For teachers, however, the challenge is ensuring that such recognition translates into practical support that is available when they need it.

Former Asumbi Girls Chief Principal Linet Pino Sati, OGW, who retired in late September after a 37-year career in education, including a decade leading the school, says mental health should be treated as a collective responsibility.

“When it comes to matters of teachers' mental health, it is as grave as any other profession. Teachers go through a lot,” she says.

Sati says teachers are often squeezed by expectations from learners, parents, school leaders and the wider community.

“Most of the time, we don't remember that a teacher is also a mother, is a wife or a husband, is a grandmother or a grandfather, and that a teacher also lives in the same society that everyone else lives in,” she says.

The pressure, she says, can come from different directions. A teacher may be experiencing marital problems, financial difficulties, childlessness, conflict with in-laws or pressure to support siblings while raising their own family.

At school, the source could be workload, conflict with a supervisor, strained relationships with colleagues or the pressure to meet targets and for school heads, community expectations can add another layer of pressure.

Sati believes teachers can begin addressing some of these challenges by creating stronger peer-support systems.“What we need to do as teachers ourselves is to come together, to talk to one another, to see any changes within somebody so that we can reach out,” she says.

She sees groups like what they have as one way of breaking the isolation that often accompanies mental health struggles.

“When peers come together and they share, they share about their families, they share about their jobs, they share about their frustrations at work. That sharing alone is to me almost half solving the problems that we have,” she says.

According to Sati, silence can make mental health challenges worse because a person begins to believe they are alone in their struggle. “The thing is, let us talk. Talk to someone in your staff room, talk to someone in your school, talk to someone in another school. Talk about issues that you think are weighing you down,” she says.

She is particularly concerned about male teachers, who she says may be less likely to seek help because of social expectations around masculinity. “Men are brought up to imagine that they should not share. They are supposed to be man enough. Don't cry,” she says.

The Kenya Red Cross has also reported that 40 per cent of Kenyan men have never spoken to anyone about their mental health, reflecting the stigma and cultural silence that continues to prevent many people from seeking help.

She says some men may instead turn to alcohol or withdraw from others, making their problems harder to identify. She wants the boy child to be taught early that expressing emotions and asking for help should not be viewed as weakness.

For young teachers entering the profession, Sati says mental preparedness is as important as professional training. “The workload is immense. There's a lot of work. As most people think, teachers have a lot of holidays. We even work over the holidays,” she says.

Teachers, she adds, are often expected to absorb the problems of learners, making it important for them to have people they can also turn to. “Our students have issues, real issues. So they come to us as teachers. You must also have a group, a team, a person, who you can also go and share with so that you also feel healed,” she says.

The need for such support is reinforced by clinical psychologist Dr Sheila Mokeira, who says early recognition of mental health problems can prevent them from becoming more severe.

She identifies persistent exhaustion, irritability, withdrawal, dread of going to school, poor concentration, absenteeism, changes in sleep or appetite, increased alcohol use, hopelessness and thoughts of self-harm as warning signs that should not be ignored.

Mokeira says ordinary stress may ease with rest, but professional help should be considered when symptoms persist for more than two weeks, interfere with work or home life, or involve panic, substance use or hopelessness.

Screening tools such as PHQ-9 and GAD-7 can help identify symptoms of depression and anxiety and guide people towards further assessment and care.

She recommends peer-support groups, mental health training for principals, fair workloads, confidential referral systems and access to professional counselling.

Cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based stress management can also help teachers develop ways of coping with stress. For Mokeira, however, the environment in which teachers work is equally important.

She says schools need to encourage open, non-punitive conversations about mental wellbeing so that teachers do not fear being labelled weak or incompetent when they ask for help.

This is the culture the She for She network is attempting to build from the ground up. Achieng says the group does not see itself as a replacement for professional mental health services. Instead, it provides a first layer of support where teachers can speak, listen and recognise when a colleague may need more specialised assistance.

The network's impact, she says, is therefore not measured simply by the number of teachers who join. “We do not measure our impact in terms of our numbers. We measure our impact in terms of that teacher who has got confidence from our programmes,” she says.

For the teachers, the solution to the mental health challenges facing educators will require both individual and institutional action. Teachers must be encouraged to speak, colleagues must learn to notice warning signs, school leaders must create supportive environments and the employer must ensure professional mental health services are accessible and confidential.

The teachers' gathering in Kisumu on October 5, during World Teachers' Day, therefore became more than a celebration of the profession. It became a reminder that the person standing before the classroom also needs care.

World Teachers' Day, celebrated annually on October 5, was established in 1994 to commemorate the signing of the recommendation concerning the status of teachers by the International Labour Organisation and UNESCO.

But as teachers marked the day, their message was clear: celebrating teachers cannot stop at praising their contribution to education. Their mental wellbeing must also be protected and for every learner who needs a teacher to listen, there must also be someone willing to listen to the teacher.