This school year may lead to severe teacher burnout!

BY PAUL JUNOR

As over two million students from 72 public school boards settled into the reality of schooling during the corona pandemic, additional pressure has been placed on educators. The adoption of a hybrid model of teaching, which combines in class and online learning simultaneously, has not been an easy transition for students, parents and educators.

The Ministry of Education has mandated that public school boards offer remote learning, which involves both asynchronous and synchronous learning for students who have not opted for virtual schooling as outlined in its memorandum. There is the additional requirement of a minimum of 225 minutes of live teaching per day.

There are many challenges that new inexperienced and seasoned teachers face as they adapted to this blended model.

In an article on Friday, October 2nd, 2020 by the Canadian Press, Kelly Main, a teacher with the Waterloo Region School Board observes, “We’re expected to deliver the material every day to both cohorts. You’re never going to be on the same page because it’s obviously harder to be working online.” There are inherent challenges with respect to students: engagement, interaction, participation and involvement.

In addition, the workload of teachers has increased significantly as they have to prepare teaching materials for both in class and online classes at the same time. Rachel Collishaw, President of the Ontario History and Social Teacher’s Association observes, “It’s basically doubling the workload on top of the COVID stress.” She notes that there is an on-going conflict that teachers face between focusing on their personal mental health and student’s well-being. This potentially could lead to long-term problems with stress.

The Canadian Press mentioned an online survey of 250 mostly Ontario and Alberta teachers from Sept 4th to 14th, which found that 78% of them reported they were worried about contracting COVID-19. Less than 50% of them expressed faith in the safety protocols that they have to enforce in their classrooms. Approximately 75% of the teachers stated that they are aware of the importance of the measures required to ensure the health and safety of students.

Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies observes, “A lot of these teachers, need more support in terms of addressing the challenges that they’re facing with respect to the effects of the pandemic.” The increased responsibility on teachers require them to be directly involved in ensuring that safety protocols are properly practised by students in schools. They have to ensure that students properly wear their masks and goggles, practice physical and social distancing as well as using hand sanitizer several times a day.

Kelly Main as a front-line worker in the educational field knows the onus pressure first hand with respect to her workload. She observes, “It’s a lot more time. It’s exhausting because of course, we’re shouting through our masks and through our facial shields or goggles to be heard.” She expressed how overwhelming it has been. She states, “The day never ends. It never ends. I consider myself to be in a pretty good position right now and I’m still stressed. I don’t really know how the others are coping. I think we might be heading for some real burnouts.”