I don't teach yet, but plan on going down that route in the next couple of years. My DH is a secondary school teacher.
Many parent's take little interest in what their children are learning. As a result, my DH has to not only encourage the children to put an effort into their work, but he even has to spend time contacting parents to encourage them to take notice.
Of course this isnt all parents, but almost always the parents of disruptive children.
Well trained teachers nowadays are very good at spotting children who may have undiagnosed SN. The problem is that not all teachers are well trained IMO.
But then there is the biggest looming problem of all, the socio-economic conditions that affect many children negatively.
For instance, there are more children of foreign language speaking parents than there used to be. Many of these children have massive responsibilities at home in helping their parents with day to day tasks that involve communication outside the home. Some of these children may turn up late to school because they have spent the morning down at the Post Office helping their parent's to fill in forms. Or they have been helping them with a doctor's appointment, or to take care of important phone calls that need to be made. (my DH had to deal with an issue like this recently and the poor child was under so much pressure at home that school was the last thing on his mind)
And then there are the children who are foreign language speakers too and who cannot speak English well themselves.
Another problem could be a child who's home environment is chaotic because the parents have 8 children living in a 3 bedroom home that lacks any sense of organisation.
There are of course children from poorer backgrounds too who have to deal with all that results from a lack of monetary stability.
Children who's parents have to work full time seven days a week to get by. They tend to lack a structured home life with parental presence.
And then there are the parents who lack education themselves and stupidly believe that schools are made not only to educate, but to raise their children for them. Those parents do exist too.
Unfortunately all these types of things affect a childs behaviour, emotional stability, attitude to learning and education and ability to socialise well within school bounderies.
It is the responsibility of parents, but our type of society has created a situation where it is out of many parents' hands due to day to day living pressures and obstacles IYSWIM. Many parents don't have the time to teach their kids these valuable skills, or lack the education to do it.
It is not the schools job, but unfortunately nowadays it is the only place many children get any parenting at all. Some teachers become more of a parental figure to children in their class than the actual parent.
I'm talking about city school situations primarily.