Classroom stress hits Fife teachers

Absence figures blamed on rising workload and falling pay

Stressed out Fife teachers sent nearly 15 years’ worth of sick notes in the past 12 months after struggling to cope in the area’s pressure cooker classrooms.

Figures have revealed there were 5,355 days lost due to stress and mental-health related absence in the year to January, with the figure continuing to rise. The problem has seen more than 14,000 teaching days lost in the area’s schools in the past three years – a picture repeated across Tayside.

Teaching union the EIS has said a “toxic combination of soaring workload and declining pay” is creating a recruitment and retention crisis in Scottish schools after their own recent survey revealed more than 60% of teachers felt regularly stressed.

Fife Council said: “We are aware that staff absence is increasing, and absence due to stress and mental illness is also rising but it is important to note that the largest proportion of stress or mental illness is not work-related.”

Decades-worth of teaching time are 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 workload.

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 workload regularly left them feeling stressed.

More than 15% of those surveyed said they were stressed “all the time”.

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 current 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.”

Angus MP Kirstene Hair said the level of stress and mental health concern is higher “across the board”, and “mainstreaming” of pupils was contributing to “challenging environments” for learning and teaching.

Scottish Conservative Ms Hair said: “Many of the constituents I have spoken to are concerned by the amount of extra pressure placed on teachers by the presumption of mainstreaming.

“While it’s correct most children should be taught together, schools do not have the resources to teach a minority of pupils in the classroom.

“They need more classroom assistants to do that, and more specialised teachers. I strongly believe teachers want their pupils to have the best education possible.

“At a time when the Scottish Government is unable to agree a fairer pay deal for the profession, I can see why so many are feeling the strain.”

“It is this toxic combination of soaring workload and declining pay that has created the current... crisis. LARRY FLANAGAN EIS