Teachers are most stressed in the world, 57% want to exit – New findings

Did you know 57% of Ghanaian teachers are most stressed in the world and a lot want to exit? These new findings must be a worry to all stakeholders in education with the teacher at hear.

Teachers go through a lot to prepare students for both BECE and WASSCE and even their lives through hard work and stress.

Teachers are most stressed in the world, new research findings reveal. Teachers suffer from more serious psychological challenges today than it has ever been experts have warned.

If governments are not acting quickly to give teachers more help, Education Support, a charity that provides assistance to education professionals, predicts academic performance may fall and mental health problems will be on the increase.

The teacher wellbeing index indicates that teachers and school leaders have increased their levels of stress to the maximum level ever for the third year running.

The findings showed that 75 teachers out of every 100 and 84% of school leaders say they are stressed.

Another alarming statistic showed that a third of education professionals have experienced a mental health issue recently.

49% of teachers hold the view that their workplace has a negative impact on them as far as mental health and wellbeing is concerned.

According to experts, teachers overwork themselves and this has become a normal occurrence in the education sector. Teachers are hardly trusted today and they feel anxious about it the more. This report is a wake-up call to all stakeholders especially governments and education ministries including the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service.

The charity’s chief executive, Sinéad Mc Brearty has argued that the situation is far beyond an alarming state. In her own words, she indicated that “We are beyond ‘crisis’. We are in a state of distress.”

It is no doubt that stress negatively impacts people’s performance at work. Education Support has therefore called on governments to ensure reforms and policies aimed at increasing the autonomy of teachers are introduced.

Because teachers are most stressed, it further called for innovative ways to measure teacher performance that will take away the stress and also change the teacher accountability systems. This it hopes will tone down the pressure and the anxiety.

Again, the findings pointed to the fact that 57% of teachers want to exit the education sector because of the high-stress levels. The emotional pressure and intense stress play critical roles in this decision. Teachers are most stressed because of the work they do with a lot of children to attend to alongside pressures from heads of schools and homes.

Teaches workload is considered another big reason for the decision of teachers to exit the sector. Others want to exit as fast as they can because teachers are not valued. It is not surprising that even students do not want to become teachers if asked if they would prefer the teaching profession.

The lack of resources for schools worsens the case for schools. Ghana cannot run away from the open truth in these findings. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Education have introduced a new curriculum yet there are no resources for teaching and learning.  This is in itself is causing so much pressure as teachers are handicapped yet the ministry does not see textbooks as essential for effective teaching and learning.

Teacher Unions also need to take such finding serious and help themselves with the needed training and education on how to manage their stress levels.

Teachers are most stressed in the world, less paid, motivated, respected and valued in Ghana. If you disagree with this. leave a comment or write a post on your position for publication on newsghana24.com.