Covid-19 and teacher stress

Flerry S. Layson

With the coronavirus pandemic, teachers across the country are facing more stress than usual. There are those educators who are teaching virtually and feel like they're working nonstop.

Some personally visit their students to oversee instruction and learning developments from modules, thus a higher risk of contracting the disease, especially there is a new and more contagious variant, which creates another kind of stress.

Amid this pandemic, teachers worry more about the children at their care in the distance learning process and how these young students could cope up with the absence of the traditional face-to-face class interaction where monitoring their development is real time.

Then teacher stress is compounded by the non-availability of technology in some areas remote for educators. This is made more complex by the lack of essential gadgets and equipment like laptops, Ipads and at the worst, internet connection.

Moreso, working from home has induced more stress especially that a teacher’s attention is divided between domestic matters and school on a distance learning system. Altogether, stress creeps in as new routines crop up for an educator whose second home is the classroom, almost every day.

But the good news is, teachers have learned to adapt themselves to the pandemic and the stressful situation it brings. What matters most is the quality of education delivered, and ultimately, the welfare of the children at their care.

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The author is Teacher III at San Francisco Elementary School