- The need to change the way of working from one day to another and create new materials, the difficulties to ensure personalized communication with students and families, the bureaucratic work that needs to be done for the administration... The pandemic has brought more hours of work and more workload to the faculty, as concluded the study carried out among the educators of Hego Euskal Herria.
1,500 teachers have participated in the survey sent to them by the STEILAS trade union. The teachers of Early Childhood Education, Vocational Training and University have answered the questions, especially those attending Primary and Secondary Education.
All day connected
Overall, two-thirds of workers have had to increase the number of working hours in the new situation, especially in ESO and Bachillerato. The need to adapt from one day to the next to telework, without prior training, the adaptation of materials and the lack of training of students, and the headache that this generates, are some of the reasons that explain this situation. Being connected all day is hard for many: “Some teachers have told us that they don’t know when their work begins and ends,” explains Juan Zubia, one of the research leaders.
Most teachers are coordinating by area, continuously inventing new materials, either uploading videos to Youtube or shaking creativity. “After all, you can send homework, but it is also shown through the body: looks, gestures, the word… All that cannot be lost and that is why videos, video conferencing…”, says Zubia.
“Some teachers have told us that they don’t know when their job starts and ends.”
The gap between pupils must also be addressed
One of the main concerns is that the gap between students is intensifying in the confinement. Zubia has recognised that some students are directly missing. The study reveals that there are three types of classrooms: classrooms that do not have students in situations of exclusion, classrooms that have three or four students in this situation and classrooms that have more than 50% of students at risk of exclusion. In other words, exclusion is concentrated in certain classrooms/centers. As age progresses, confinement affects more students at risk of social exclusion: It has influenced 25% in Early Childhood Education, 42% in Primary Education, and 49% in Secondary Education.
To communicate with them, more use is made of the telephone in Children and Primary, and video conferencing at higher levels. In some cases, people with difficulties have been given the technological resources of the center, they have been given the paper work… “We give them everything we can,” says a large teaching staff.
“Teachers already have a lot of work and the administration, instead of making things easier, has put educators to do management tasks to control their activity”
Over-control by administration
Teachers have an extra workload: management work for the administration that demands accounts and bureaucracy. “Teachers already have a lot of work, some are overflowing, and the administration, instead of making things easier, has put the educator to do management tasks to control her activity,” Zubia said.
Moreover, the vast majority of teachers say they have no technical difficulties in working – a minority misses the electronic devices, the connection, the material or an adequate working space. And almost 74 percent of respondents have no personal problems working from home, but for some it's being difficult to care for their children and seniors, lack of silence or loneliness.
“Parents are watching closely the work they have to do with children and young people. I'm sure more than one will realize the great work that teachers do."
Recognition of work
Given the efforts being made by teachers to enable the education of children and young people to thrive, we have asked Juan Zubia if they feel valued. It's optimistic. “Parents are watching closely the work they have to do with children and young people, the material that is created for them, then teachers have to correct all that, be on top… I’m sure more than one will realize the great work that teachers do and will recognize them.”