'Teachers need more support'

Stress and overwork must be kept to a minimum in schools, says National Union of Teachers general secretary Doug McAvoy

Doug McAvoy, NUT general secretary
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 15 June 2000 15.58 BST

"My mummy's hobby is marking," said the child of a teacher when asked about her parents' out-of-school activities. Teachers have insufficient time outside the classroom during the school day to carry out tasks which support their teaching and pupils' development. Secondary teachers do not get enough and few primary teachers get any at all, and none is guaranteed.

Yet marking, lesson planning, report writing, lesson evaluation, continuous assessment, record keeping, all have to be done. Then there are the bureaucratic tasks governments throw at them. If stress and overwork are to be minimised, teachers must have guaranteed support time and limits on their working hours.

But the demands on their time are heavily influenced by the number of pupils in their classes. Each child generates homework and class work which must be marked and recorded, and for whom reports and records of achievement must be maintained.

Limit the class size and automatically teachers' workload is limited, bringing significant educational advantages for the children.

Our surveys identify these changes as priorities for teachers. But they also point to the need for classroom assistants and support staff in schools. Such help frees the teacher from non-teaching tasks allowing greater concentration on teaching, preparation for teaching and encouraging pupils' learning.

Such a contract would help minimise the stresses and strains and the overwork which too frequently nowadays leads to dedicated, committed professionals cracking under the strain, forcing them out of the profession and denying our children the benefits of their expertise.