Teaching can be both rewarding and challenging, often demanding a great deal from educators. The workload can be overwhelming, especially in private schools and pre-primary classes where teachers handle everything independently. From preparing lesson plans and writing notes to teaching, managing diaries and registers, organizing extracurricular activities, and maintaining classroom discipline, teachers juggle multiple responsibilities both at school and at home. Without classroom assistants, the pressure increases, making the job even more demanding. Indeed, teaching is not for the faint-hearted!
Understanding teachers workload is the key and it's not just the duty of the teacher to manage the workload alone. The school administrators and parents also play a vital role in managing the teachers' workload, so as to help him or her deliver effectively.
WHAT IS TEACHERS' WORKLOAD
Teachers workload is a certain amount of task and responsibilities assigned to a teacher, within their professional role. It could be , teaching, administrative task, planning extracurricular activities etc.
Factors contributing to teachers workload
1 . Large class size
2 . Multiple teaching subject
3 . Parental and community expectations
4 . Extracurricular activities
5 . Administrative duties.
Effects of excessive workload on teachers.
A heavy workload can impacts teachers negatively in various ways:
a . Physical and Mental Health Issues
Fatigue, stress, anxiety, and burnout will set in when a teacher is over stressed with much workload and this will definitely affect his or her health.
b . Reduced Teaching Effectiveness; no matter how good or sound a teacher is, he or she cannot perform to the best of his abilities when the workload is much.
c . Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover Rates ; teachers who are overworked , especially without a good pay will frequently leave the job.
d . Poor Teacher-Student Relationship ; the one on one and deep interaction between the teacher and learner will reduce, because he or she will only focus on some learners.
e . Negative Impact on Work-Life Balance; teachers are humans, and have other lives outside the classroom. Therefore, when the workload is much , they struggle to balance personal and professional lives.
Possible Solutions to Reduce Teachers’ Workload
To improve teachers' working conditions, schools and policymakers can adopt the following strategies:
Hiring More Teachers: Getting more man power will reduce workload for each and will help them their task smoothly.
Reducing class sizes : Reduce class size and work on a favorable teacher to student ratio.
Reducing Administrative Tasks: Employ administrative staff to reduce the rate at which more administrative jobs is being assigned to teachers.
Leveraging Technology: Make use of digital tools for grading, preparation of lesson plan and note, etc.
Provide Counseling services
Set reasonable work hours and ensure teachers have adequate rest.
Better Salary and Incentives.
Let's do our best to make the education sector work. Thanks for reading. I am @nsigo1
NB: All photos are mine
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