Teacher workload overload

The Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Education Union today released research showing the growing problem of escalating workloads for teachers in public education.

The report shows that 93% of survey respondents agreed, or strongly agreed, that workloads had significantly increased over the past five years.

A majority of teachers, 87%, also reported not being able to do all the tasks required of them in a working day with some working up to 82 hours a week.

Terry Polglase, Tasmanian Branch President, said that if Tasmania was serious about turning around student performance it had to tackle the problem of escalating teacher workloads.

“The research shows that workloads have become unmanageable in recent years with administrative tasks, in particular, overloading teachers,” said Mr Polglase.

“Teachers are required to spend too much time in meetings and on paperwork and not enough time on preparing quality learning experiences for our children.
“Teachers need more time to plan and prepare quality, individual learning experiences according to every student’s need.”
The report, Teacher workload overload – a snapshot is the result of online quantitative surveys of teacher members around Tasmania and qualitative research (focus groups, individual interviews, and teacher workload diaries).
Other research results:
• 52% disagreed that their workloads were manageable
• 58% reported that their workloads between 2011 and 2012 had substantially increased.
• Only one in three teachers, 33%, believe they have sufficient planning and preparation time.

Teacher members who completed workload diaries, as part of qualitative research, showed that a majority were working between 55 and 82 hours a week, far above their paid hours of 35 hours on-site a week.

Download:

Teacher_workload_overload_-_a_snapshot.pdf
Terry Polglase, AEU Tasmanian Branch President