Yesterday it was reported by the BBC that teachers are stressed and being ‘reduced to tears’. I wanted to explore this topic further being a MA1 student studying Education at the University of Dundee. Dr Bousted reported in a TES article teachers were being told

“stress is increasingly being regarded as par for the course and part of the job.”

Should this be the case? Is this what I have to look forward to as a teacher? Bursting into tears every night and staying up till 11pm to mark homework? No life? Would a nurse be asked to stay back in a hospital to work 5 or 6 hours longer than their shift? Would that not be risking the lives of the patients having a tired nurse on the ward? As a teacher it will be my job to look after children’s education, prepare classes, marking etc. So maybe it is up to me to find a way of stopping sometimes and taking time to myself. Last year I worked as an Early Years Practitioner where me and my colleague would work hours above our contracted time but rarely did we let that affect our personal time. If we had plans outside of nursery, outside of nursery hours that became our priority. It worked really well and we were happy in our jobs and outside our jobs. Yes, sometimes stressful situations cropped up that lasted a week or so but I didn’t feel stressed all time.

However, another point of view is the Government need to be supporting teachers which they are clearly not doing. I don’t see that I should be the person who feels isolated, that her work is getting on top of her when there is a Government out there and an Education department whose job it is to protect me in my role as a teacher. There needs to be clear structure in place to support teachers so that stress doesn’t “become part of the job.” Stress can be a horrific condition which can lead to teachers taking time off work and then the children suffering with the swap of teachers. I remember in school when teachers were off it would be a different substitute teacher everyday, none of whom could possibly know what stages we were at, who we were and what we were being taught. With England needing 160,000 additional teachers over the next three years according to statistics, the Government should be doing something to stop this atrocity happening.

So I have given two points here, that I as an individual should be in control of my own stress management and that the Government should be doing something to help teachers stop feeling this way. Is it a mix of both? Which is the right way of helping our teachers deal with stress? Time management or Government action?