Pressure from the National Education Union (NEU) and other unions has led to a drive to help teachers spend more time teaching.

A staggering 81% of teachers said they have considered leaving teaching in the last year because of the pressures of workload, according to an NEU  survey of over 8,000 teachers, caused by more pupils and funding cuts.

Nearly two thirds (61%) of teachers spend over 3 hours a day on tasks that did not involve teaching, such as pupil exam grades and preparing for schools inspections.

One teacher told the researchers:

I spend every evening and weekend working. If I don’t, I feel guilty for not working and I am made to feel guilty as well… The workload is making me ill and I want my life back.

To address the concerns, the NEU together with the English Department for Education has produced a video and toolkit focusing on reducing the burden of planning and eliminating unnecessary activities.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary, National Education Union said:

The Government needs more than ambition if these efforts are to work. School accountability needs fundamental reform, not tinkering. School leaders need to know what the Government and Ofsted expects of them, not just what they don’t expect.

You can find out more about this campaign at https://neu.org.uk/workload.

Image by Sarah licensed under Creative Commons