More than half of Jersey's teachers considered leaving their job

TEACHER AND CLASSROOM - PA IMAGES
60% of teachers and 86% of senior staff say Covid-19 has negatively impacted their work/life balance. Credit: PA Images

Nearly 60% of teachers in Jersey say they have considered leaving their jobs in the last 12 months.

The reasons given were; workload, pressure of the job, and not feeling supported.

The Government of Jersey released the results of the 2021/2022 Teachers' Survey which looked at the impact of the pandemic on schools, staff and students.

The survey has run every two years since 2015, giving teachers and lecturers the chance to share experiences and opinions.

The results show 60% of teachers and 86% of senior staff say Covid-19 has negatively impacted their work/life balance.

Meanwhile the same number of teachers say they experienced a threat of physical harm by a pupil.

The National Education Union (NEU) says it is disappointed the government has only just released the results of the survey, as there is now "now little opportunity for discussion on the findings with teachers prior to the Easter break".

"We are keen that this survey is used as a wake-up call for the government, so they see just how staff feel in their schools. There are opportunities in the education reform program to address some of the concerns with working conditions and long hours.

"We call on the government to act now and do more for the education professionals of Jersey. By valuing educators, we value education."

Jersey's Director of Education, Seán O'Regan says the government is planning how it can better meet the needs of children and parents by making sure they have access to the right services.

"We're getting better at translation of information, of the offering of interpreters, to better help families access the services available to them."

Jersey's government says it investing "very significantly" in supporting multilingual learners and their teachers.

"We've had training events for all teachers working with multilingual learners, we've grown the central team. Every single school will have somebody who can lead this area of work, because what we really want as well as specialist teaching and support, is every teacher to feel the confidence and have skills to teach multilingual learners."