Teachers depressed - 9 out of 10 on medication to help them cope

Teachers cannot cope with the demands of their jobs.

And poor working conditions, financial burdens and "unrealistic" demands are causing them to fall ill.

These are some of the revelations that came to light at a teachers' indaba hosted by the department of basic education in Pretoria yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the indaba, the department's acting chief director in human resources development, Enoch Rabotapi, said teachers were taking sick leave a lot, an indication that their general well-being was not good.

"Although we also acknowledge the fact that in some instances it [sick leave] is being abused, but that set aside, the number of teachers who take sick leave is significantly higher than any other form of leave," said Rabotapi.

"Reports have shown that most of the [illnesses] that teachers suffer from are actually stress-related sickness which therefore is an indication that our teaching core cannot cope with some of the challenges that they have in schools."

Speaking at the indaba, executive director of National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa Henry Hendricks said the burdens teachers carried impacted negatively on their mental health.

"According to recent research, nine out of 10 teachers over [the age of] 35 are on hypertension medication and others don't even know they have hypertension.

"Why? We as teachers deal with all the problems in the world but have very little support structures ourselves.

"Some of our teachers are teaching in harrowing conditions subjected to poor infrastructure, lack of parental and even management support," said Hendricks.

South African Council of Educators (SACE) spokesman Themba Ndhlovu said teachers had to deal with a lot of issues unrelated to teaching, such as a lack of safety at schools . "Nine out of 10 of our teachers are on antidepressants because the working conditions are depressing," said Ndhlovu.

He added that most teachers found themselves in financial trouble largely because of financial mismanagement and not because they were underpaid.

"As SACE we . want to come up with a booklet on financial well-being which could be distributed to teachers so that they understand finances and budgeting better because an unhappy teacher at home obviously won't produce at work," he said.

macupeb@sowetan.co.za