TEACHERS are seeking medication from St Giles Psychiatric Hospital because of stress, pressure and sickness, Fijian Teachers Association (FTA) general secretary Paula Manumanunitoga reveals.
Speaking in an interview yesterday about the high absenteeism rate among teachers, Mr Manumanunitoga said the large number of students in classrooms was a major contributing factor to the “enormous levels of stress” teachers face.
He pointed to schools in the Suva area where student numbers can reach 55 in a classroom.
“Now, how do we expect a teacher to be mindful of his absence because of the stress levels that he has to bear with for 14 whole weeks during a term before he actually gets a break,” he said.
Mr Manumanunitoga said weekends were sometimes not enough for teachers to recover from the demands of dealing with large numbers of students throughout the week.
“Teachers have to manage their stress levels, they would want to have a rest because of the large class sizes that they have, the population that they have.”
He said the FTA had previously been raising the issue of overcrowded classrooms with the ministry and had made suggestions, including encouraging faith-based schools to construct more classrooms or expand existing ones.
Mr Manumanunitoga said teachers should not be compared with other civil servants because of the demands of their work.
He said teachers were required to be “yapping away from 7 in the mornings until 3 in the afternoons” to carry out their duties.
“They are doing the job of disseminating knowledge, whereas other civil servants sit in front of a computer in the office.”
He said the stress levels between teachers and other civil servants were different, despite being categorised under the same system.
Mr Manumanunitoga said a job evaluation was needed to determine whether the current classification properly reflected the demands placed on teachers.
