Yesterday was Teachers’ Day in Taiwan, but a report shows that teachers endure greater job-related stress than other professionals, according to the UK’s National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). With student numbers rising and an increasing proportion of teachers leaving the profession, the report found that one in five felt tense about their job most or all of the time, compared with 13 percent of those in similar occupations.
Although teachers’ working hours across the year were similar to those in other professions, working intensively over fewer weeks of the year led to a poorer work-life balance and higher stress levels, the NFER observed. Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the report echoed the long-standing concerns about the anxieties faced by teachers.
“The reasons that so many leave the profession so quickly are not a mystery to us,” she said. “When faced with impossible workloads, endless accountability, a testing culture run riot and flat or underfunded pay deals year after year, it is all too common for good teachers to leave the profession.”
Photo: CNA
照片：中央社
The NFER called for urgent action to address the shortfall in the number of trainee teachers amid a significant drop in retention rates of early career teachers, noting the higher job security graduates can enjoy outside of the profession.
Jack Worth, co-author of the report, said: “England’s schools are facing significant challenges in recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of teachers … There is a clear need to improve the working conditions of teachers, with a focus on making the teaching career more manageable and sustainable.”
The report comes after the UK Department for Education published its Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy in January to address the growing shortage of teachers by reducing workloads and simplifying the application process.
Photo courtesy of Tatung University via CNA
照片：中央社 (大同大學提供)
Then-UK education secretary Damian Hinds said: “Since I took this job a year ago, I’ve made cutting down the amount of unnecessary and bureaucratic workload teachers face my top priority — to address the issues highlighted in this report and free up teachers to focus on what they joined the profession to do: teach.”
(The Guardian with staff writer)
昨天是台灣的教師節，然而根據英國國家教育研究基金會先前發表的報告指出，老師比其他專業工作者承受更大的工作相關壓力。隨著學生數量增加，以及離開教職的老師比例攀升，該份報告發現，五名老師裡就有一位，在大部分時間或甚至無論何時都對工作感到心情緊繃，比其他類似職業的百分之十三來得高。
雖然教師一年的總工作時數相近於其他職業，但是英國國家教育研究基金會觀察，教師一年中要在較少的幾週內進行強度極高的工作，造成較差的工作與生活平衡，以及較高的壓力程度。英國國家教育工會聯合秘書長瑪麗‧波斯蒂德博士表示，這份報告反映出工會長期以來對於教師面對焦慮的擔憂。
波斯蒂德指出：「這麼多人如此快速地離開教職，這對我們來說並不是神秘難解的現象。」她說：「面對不可能完成的工作量、無止盡的責任、混亂而失壓的考試文化，或是年復一年資金短缺的薪資合約，好老師離開教職實在是再普遍不過的事。」
該基金會呼籲政府採取緊急行動，處理實習教師人數的缺額問題，以及教師在教職生涯初期顯著下降的留校率，並且提到畢業生在教職之外其實能獲得更高的就業保障。
該篇報告的共同作者傑克‧沃斯表示：「在聘用並留任足夠數量的教師上，英國的學校目前面臨相當險峻的挑戰……。我們明顯需要改善教師們的工作條件，焦點應放在讓教職生涯更容易掌握，並且更能持續發展。」
這份報告在英國教育部於一月發布「教師聘任及留用策略」後公開。英國教育部推出的這項策略，旨在藉由減少工作量並簡化申請流程，來解決逐步攀升的教師缺額。
時任英國教育大臣的達米安‧海因茲表示：「自從我上任的這一年來，我一直將削減教師面對不必要又官僚主義的工作量當成第一優先──以處理這份報告強調的議題，並讓教師們騰出時間，來專心從事他們加入這份職業時打算做的事：教書。」
(台北時報章厚明編譯)
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