Review of stress management in teaching profession
Answers
CAUSES OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG TEACHERS:
Teaching is regarded as a very stressful occupation. Increasing consciousness for education due to increasing competitions among students for achieving their goals added more pressure and stress on teachers. Following are the causes of occupational stress among teachers-
LOW SOCIAL STATUS: Though there is much lip-service in this profession, but in actual practice, the society does not grant even a reasonably respectful status to the teacher. The teacher does not get proper recognition from society. This produces the feeling of inferiority in teachers and causes stress among teachers.
LOW ECONOMIC STATUS: The salary of teachers is miserably low as compared to other professions. Moreover, the chances of promotion are extremely limited; for this reason, most of the teachers have no genuine interest in teaching. This causes feeling of frustration.
NO SECURITY OF SERVICE: A large majority of teachers work in private schools. In these schools, they have no security of service, and consequently, the teachers, never enjoy the feeling of self-confidence and get frustrated.
HEAVY WORK LOAD: In the schools, the teachers have to take thirty periods per week. They have also to take extra periods, when some members of the staff are on leave. The compulsory organization of a co-curricular activities added atmosphere of stress and strain.
WORKING UNDER AUTOCRATIC HEADMASTERS: Though, we prefer that there should be democratic system of administration in the schools, but in actual practice, the headmasters act as bosses, and their attitude towards the teachers is autocratic rather than democratic. This type of attitude is of great insult and injurious to the self-respect of teachers.
MONOTONY OF WORK: The teachers are required to teach the same topics year after year, which make their work boring and monotonous. There are no challenging situations and no variety in their work. The teacher keeps himself busy in preparing the students for examination. This causes stress among teachers.
THE PROBLEM OF INDISCIPLINE: In the schools, it is the responsibility of the teachers to maintain discipline; but the causes of indiscipline are numerous and most of these are beyond the control of teachers. Under these circumstances, the teachers feel helpless and frustrated.
SOCIAL FACTORS: Man is born in society. He has to shape his conduct in conformity with the customs and values of society. Sometimes teachers feel helpless to cope with social norms and feel stressed.
GASTROINTESTINAL: Loss of appetite, heartburn, miscellaneous i.e. anxiety, muscle pain, painful urination, etc. all these factors causes emotional disturbance and stress.
LACK OF PROFESSIONAL APTITUDE: Lack of professional aptitude and devotion to the profession causes stress among teachers.
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS: Frequent criticism, restrictions, extra workload, high expectations of the members of society and leg pulling among teachers etc. create conflicts in the minds of teachers and leads towards stress.
AUTOCRATIC SUPERVISION: The supervision and inspection of the teachers work is autocratic. The higher authorities interfere unnecessarily in the work of teachers. They are generally in habit of finding faults only leads to occupational stress.
RECRUITMENT SYSTEM: In most of cases teachers are appointed on the basis of other considerations rather than teaching aptitude and teaching abilities. This situation creates conflict and jealousy among teachers which leads to frustration.
These are some of the important causes which are responsible for the occupational stress among teachers. These causes should be removed as far as possible.