Stressors of township secondary school teachers : a management issue

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine factors which caused stress for township secondary school teachers. The purpose of this paper is to determine the role of School Management Teams (SMTs) in the stressors of township secondary school teachers. A questionnaire was developed and administered on 368 teachers from the Free State Province. Once the stressors were determined, their means were used to rank them - from the most stressful to the least stressful. Only the highest 30 stressors were considered in this paper. The main stressors were: poor learner performance, poor learner discipline and poor parental involvement in school matters. It was also found that 20 of the 30 stressors were the SMTs' responsibility, seven were the parents' responsibility and three were DBE's (Department of Basic Education) responsibility. It was concluded that SMTs of the schools surveyed were unable to adequately address factors causing stress for teachers in their schools. It was recommended that SMTs should be developed, and then be held accountable for the high levels of teacher stress, and for the subsequent poor performance of teachers in their schools.