More and more teachers need to ask for help “overwhelmed” by an overload of care tasks and bureaucracyas well as the increase in conflict in the centersthe office of the Teachers’ Ombudsman of the ANPE union denounced this Tuesday. In the presentation of its latest national report, corresponding to the 2023/2024 academic year, the union reveals that 69% of teachers who went to their help service did so with anxiety16.1% being on sick leave and 13.4% suffering from depression, the latter figure slightly higher than the previous year (12.7%).
Of the 2,101 actions included in the annual report, 153 more than the previous year (7.9%), it stands out the increase experienced by teachers’ problems “with the administration and the educational system”, which totaled 770 claims. This rises to the second most mentioned problem by teachers who go to this advisory service (36.6%), behind “false accusations” (36.9%) and ahead of “lack of respect” ( 34%).
“The high incidence of problems associated with the mental health of the group is closely linked to the growing bureaucratic overload and lack of resources to face educational challenges“, denounced the vice president of ANPE, Sonia GarcÃa. This situation occurs mainly due to regulatory changes, understaffing, both of teachers and administration, as well as “the implementation of projects and coordination without budget allocation or personnel that multiply the tasks that the teaching staff must perform and cause them stress and demotivation”says the report.
“They call us crying”
“More and more teachers are calling us crying. That puts us on alert and worries us,” said Teresa Hernández, coordinator of the Teachers’ Ombudsman service, an office that the ANPE union opened 19 years ago in Madrid and is now established in all the Autonomous Communities, who denounced the “administration inaction“to solve these problems.
This year’s report points out an “increasing complexity” of the cases of conflict addressed, as well as the impact they have on the mental health of teachers.
Specifically, they highlight that Primary and early childhood teachers attended are the ones who present the most anxiety (75.8% and 69.6%, respectively).), as well as those who suffer the most sick leave (20% in children), something they attribute to “inadequate working conditions.”
According to ANPE, early childhood teachers face more care tasks without reinforcements, such as changing clothes after escapes, and are overwhelmed by the lack of classroom planning for early schooling of students with undiagnosed special needsoverload that falls on them.
In secondary education centers, for its part, the union attributes the overflow of teachers to increasingly diverse and inclusive classrooms in which more students with problems are detected, but suffers from a lack of counselors and resources for the coordination of well-being. “The administration implements protocols, for example against suicidal ideations or violence, but does not provide teachers with resources to confront them,” the union denounced.
More attacks by students
“Mental health problems do not go down, it is a red light, and “The administration has to provide resources.”claimed the coordinator of the advisory service for public education teachers.
In its breakdown, the report indicates that the incidents reported by teachers are divided into problems with students, problems with parents and other problems. On the good note, conflicts related to students decrease slightly in percentage terms compared to the previous year, from 43.3% to 41.3%, but nevertheless in absolute terms Attacks by students on teachers increased, from 138 to 157 last school year.
“A worrying fact,” according to the report, which indicates that the most common incidents with students are, in this order, difficulties in teaching, lack of respectfalse accusations and threats.
The problems with parents They were reduced “slightly” compared to the previous year and are concentrated in primary and infant schools, where family involvement is greater. The most repeated are, according to the report, “false accusations”, “complaints at the center or to the inspection”, “lack of respect” and “harassment”. Physical attacks by parents on teachers decreased from 49 to 42 throughout the last school year.
ANPE has requested a greater involvement of the Ministry of Education for coordination between Communities Autonomous, so that there are no differences depending on where you study, updating the teaching professional career, so that it is more attractive, updating the plans to improve school coexistence. In short, “leadership of the ministry”, as well as budgets “to reduce ratios, establish a maximum teaching schedule for teachers and increase staff numbers. Especially for counselors and administration staff.”