Commenting on the UCL paper Teacher workload and well-being. New
international evidence from the OECD TALIS study, published today
by the Nuffield Foundation, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General
Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"Teachers are still working amongst the longest hours in Europe,
and this is clearly linked to heavy workload of lesson
preparation and marking, resulting in poor wellbeing rates. As
this report shows, it is not the core work which teachers find
stressful but the piling on to the working day of a set of
accountability requirements that exist solely to please
Government and Ofsted. Accountability offers little educational
value but does drive high stress and poor wellbeing levels in
teachers.
"High workload also leads to retention problems in the workforce,
which this Government has consistently failed to avert. The
latest threat of a pay cap in this week's Spending Review adds
insult to injury.
"Since the data used by the UCL researchers was collected, we
have entered a worldwide pandemic in which teachers are working
exceptionally hard with no extra time or resources, constantly
putting themselves at risk and making changes to practice to
provide continuity of education for all.
"The Government must recognise the exceptional contribution of
the teaching profession and show respect and trust by eliminating
needless inspections this academic year and recognise hard work
by not imposing a real-terms pay cut."
