Educators seek stress relief holiday

Hyderabad: Many schools, organizations may include sick leave, maternity and paternity leave, compassionate leave and even bereavement leave. But does it include mental health sick leave?

City's educators want "stress leave" or "stress holidays" on the lines of "sick leave". The teaching landscape is under revolutionary changes. Educators feel that they are under a tremendous amount of pressure. The community which had to deal with students only in the past has now to deal with parents as well. Constant monitoring, tremendous pressure to deliver results, travelling back and forth, all adding up to a tremendous amount of pressure opined many top school principals at a just-concluded unique educators forum called 'Vihaan Indian in 2040'. City's top principals from 115 top schools assembled here in the city on Friday for the Forum meeting organized by SIP Academy. The theme of the conference was "How to develop skills in children to make India a true global leader by 2040"

While sharing their ideas on how to develop skills in children to make India a truly a global leader by the year 2040, many principals that they were underpaid. Skand Bali, the principal of Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet said, the pre-primary schoolteachers who were supposed to be paid more than any other teachers are not paid adequately. Handling pre-primary classes are tougher than handling 10th, 11th and 12th grades, he said.

Speaking on 'What are top schools in India doing to develop relevant skills in children?', Skand Bali opined that women teachers struggle harder than their male counterparts. It is them who put long hours of work as they do their routine household chores, travel to school, perform their professional duties then go back and again perform their role as a homemaker in their respective homes. They are more stress-prone than their male colleagues. They need more rest. Singapore has "Mental Health Day". Teachers and Students decide whether or not to go to school on that. The school does function normally. It is the individuals who decided to go or not.

It is true, teachers now experience stress at some point during their careers said V Pallavi, a former teacher, psychologist and an independent counselor. They certainly deserve an extra leave, maybe once a month as "stress relief leave" on the lines of sick leave.

Teachers need more rest than students if they have to come out without box thinking to match the expectations of the school managements and parents to deliver a good performance. They can't work under pressure for a long time. I feel that we are allowed to take at least one day in a month as "Stress Relief Holiday" for better productivity. I strongly recommend this said Anupama, Principal of Gateway International High School.

Jayasree, another Principal from DPSS, Aminpura echoed the same sentiment. 'All of us deal with lots of job stress. Teachers have to be well prepared every day, many people think that teachers have good working schedules, but teachers take a lot more of their work home with them than other professionals. Student behavioural problems, standardised testing and unstable school leadership, demanding parents, travel to school and back all add up to our stress levels. It will be a good idea if we are allowed to relax for a day as a day for stress relief', she said.

'Though we have a lot of holidays compared to many other professions, they are justified. Additionally, at least one day in a month can be allowed to be a stress relief holiday, it will help us to rejuvenate and come back to duties with more energy' said Kavitha, Principal of Vignan School, ECIL.