Work related stress in teaching 'a real problem'

A senior politician has said multiple factors affect teacher wellbeing in Guernsey, following a Jersey survey showing many in the profession are dissatisfied.

Education President Paul Montague said he believed Guernsey was in a better position than other parts of the UK but work related stress among teachers had to be looked at because it was "a real problem".

He was responding to Jersey saying its government's Schools' and Colleges' Survey found 62% of respondents said they had considered leaving their role in the last 12 months.

Montague said: "I've supported an awful lot of colleagues who've been off with work related stress and we do have a significant number of those."

He added teaching was a high pressure job and people being off ill put strain on other staff so "we've got to make sure we look after them".

"We need all our employees to have really meaningful line management meetings on a very regular basis so there are those constant check-ins, because we can't get to the point where problems build up and then people go off ill," he said.

Teachers were "working incredibly hard and I think we're so fortunate to have some of the teachers that we do," he added.

He added people didn't mind the pressure as long as they were working in an institution where the support was right.

"We've got to build those communities of teachers so that the ethos in those schools can really develop and I think we'll see progress there," he said.

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