Stress-related absences of teachers continuing to rise

DECADES-worth of teaching time is being lost to Tayside and Fife school pupils as stress takes its toll on the region’s teachers.

New figures have revealed the staff time lost with stress-related sickness absence continuing to rise.

Dundee teachers racked up 3,615 days in stress-related sickness absence from January 2017-2018, up from 3,388 in 2017.

Angus teachers called in sick for 3,602 days in 2017-18, up from 2,829 two years previously, while the Fife figure rose from 5,177 to 5,355.

Perth and Kinross Council declined to provide stress-related absence data.

The information, obtained under freedom of information legislation, follows a January survey showing that more than 75% of Scottish teachers frequently feel stress because of their workloads.

Tayside and Fife local authorities said the wellbeing of school staff is a priority and have detailed a raft of measures and strategies either already in place or being developed to support them.

However, the impact on school spending and staffing on local authority budgets due to be announced within days has given rise to further fears the situation will remain a major concern for councils, schools, staff and parents – and may even worsen.

In the EIS teaching union’s survey last month, 60% of teachers said during the course of a typical week their workloads regularly left them feeling stressed.

A common theme for a number of the contributors was the challenge of teaching children with additional support needs (ASN) in mainstream classes.

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said of the union survey: “Excessive workload and high levels of stress are clearly also contributing to the high levels of dissatisfaction felt by many teachers. It is this toxic combination of soaring workload and declining pay that has created the recruitment and retention crisis facing Scottish education.

“Both of these issues must be addressed to ensure that Scotland’s education system can continue to meet the needs of learners in the future.”

More than 75% of Scottish teachers often feel stress due workloads.