The common perception of a “teacher” is someone standing at the blackboard, transferring knowledge and shaping children’s futures. Yet, many Thai teachers today are facing burnout and critical accumulated stress from workload exceeding their teaching roles.
Surveys and feedback from education personnel reveal that most stress does not come from the children, but from “the system and hidden workload.”
Paperwork and Evaluation: Teachers must prepare project documents, plans, performance evaluation reports, and paperwork unrelated directly to teaching.
Administrative Tasks and Special Duties: In many small and medium-sized schools, one teacher must cover roles such as finance, procurement, administration, nutrition, and even security duties.
Online World Without Boundaries: Communication via applications like LINE forces teachers to respond to parents’ questions and urgent orders outside official hours, 24/7.
Pressure from Expectations: From top-level policies, administrators, parents, and changes in student behavior in the digital age.
Chronic stress directly affects both physical and mental health as follows.
Impacts | Common Symptoms |
Physical Health | Insomnia, migraines, acid reflux, office syndrome, weakened immunity. |
Mental Health | Anxiety, mood swings, reduced concentration, feelings of worthlessness, leading to depression. |
Teaching Atmosphere | Reduced patience with students, lack of creativity in lesson planning. |
Addressing teacher stress cannot be done by individual mental health training alone; it requires systemic structural change.
Reduce non-teaching workload by hiring specialized administrative and finance staff to free teachers to focus on teaching development.
Revise evaluation systems to focus on actual learning outcomes and happiness in the classroom, reducing assessments based on paperwork and superficial exhibitions.
Establish concrete mental health care systems with hotlines or channels for teachers to access psychiatrists or psychologists without stigma on their work records.
Respect personal time by clearly defining guidelines for work communication outside official hours.