Time off for stress doubled for teachers last year

Thursday 07 April 2016

The number of days taken off by teachers for anxiety, stress or depression more than doubled last year.

Last year saw 34 teachers take a total of 948 days off for stress or depression – a major increase on the 26 teachers who took 426 days off in 2014.

The number of days lost to anxiety, stress or depression is also the highest recorded since at least 2012.

The figures were revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Law request which also revealed that the total number of days off sick by teachers (3,678) was the highest since the peak of 3,765 in 2012.

Retired teacher Anne Southern, who used to be a teaching union official, said that a range of factors including the inclusion policy, monitoring and observation of teachers, bigger class sizes and having to stick to commercially-produced teaching materials were all having an impact on the profession.

She said: "The impression that I get from a talk given by the Director of Education to retired teachers is that the new Director is very focused on test score and exam results and not so concerned about individual teachers' well-being.

"Anecdotally I have heard of headteachers that think anyone in a promoted post should be working at least 12 hours a day. I think a tired teacher is not a good teacher. Everything that made the job enjoyable - to be spontaneous and to devise lessons to interest the students has disappeared. It's all about ticking boxes. My sister in the UK says that for the first time in her life she is having to do what she thinks of as bad teaching because of the spelling, grammar and punctuation elements of the SATS tests."