Study reveals 4.4 per cent of teachers moderately stressed

KUALA LUMPUR: A study conducted on teachers has revealed that 4.4 per cent of the 48,258 respondents or about 2,000 teachers, experience moderate stress, the Dewan Negara was told yesterday.

Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malek said the factors contributing to stress among teachers were family, financial, administrative or work burden, lack of skills in carrying out their duties and not being trained to address stress issues.

“Last year, the Psychology and Counselling Division of the Ministry of Education conducted a study on stress-related issues among teachers on 48,258 respondents.

“The Counsellors Board of Malaysia has registered counsellors who are assigned at the District Administration Office to provide counselling to teachers,” he said.

He said this in reply to Datuk Zahari Sarip who wanted to know the results of the study and the truth if today’s teachers were experiencing stress and depression as well as what steps were being taken to address the issue.

Maszlee added that the ministry would submit a proposal to the Public Service Department to increase the number of counsellors as the present number was insufficient to deal with the problem.

He said various activities for the purposes of prevention and developing an intervention were conducted to address teachers’ stress and depression, including organising conflict management and emotional management programmes as well as the public service partnership programme.

“Teachers who have been confirmed to be suffering from mental illness or depression will be placed in teacher pools to enable them to receive proper treatment,” he said.