Teaching is hazardous

I'm sure you've heard of people saying that a teacher's job is the best and easiest... work half day and got lots of holidays.

You might have been one of the people who uttered that.

This statement may be true 30 or even 20 years ago but not anymore. I assure you that there's more to it than meets the eye.

The following excerpt is taken from the Borneo Post dated today 5th July, 2008

More teachers suffering critical illness

KUALA LUMPUR: The increasing workload and work-related stress among teachers have taken a toll on the once ‘noble profession’, with more teachers facing the risk of incurring critical health problems.

In sounding the alarm yesterday, National Union of Teaching Profes-sion (NUTP) secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng said more teachers were now suffering stress and ran a high risk of getting cancer, heart attacks and high blood pressure.

She said the worrying trend was reflected in the insurance claims made by the teachers, especially in the past five years.

“It’s a occupational hazard for the teachers. We have made a random survey and there was a reported increase in the critical illness and it’s worrying,” she told a news conference here yesterday.

She said that from January to June this year alone, 38 critical illness cases were reported involving a total claim paid of about RM2.1 million.

The NUTP record showed that in 2004, there were 79 cases of critical cases reported, 2005 (100 cases), 2006 (106 cases) and 2007 (125).

If a teacher's job was that easy, would teachers be suffering from stress, high blood pressure, cancer and heart attacks?

You may have heard of teachers committing suicide or suffering from mental problems. Some are forced to retire early because of health conditions. Many teachers if not nearly all are moody and full of complaints.

There's an endless list on this but let's not dwell on it too long.

I'm glad to say I don't have a critical illness. However, I noted that about a year into this profession, I've been getting the flu about 5 times a year; bad cough sore throat, running nose, watery eyes and the occasional fever. This has never happened before even when I was a student or as a child.

Lately my blood pressure (see previous post here) has been above normal. Dizziness and headaches have been a daily occurrence for more than 2 weeks now.

So, whoever says teaching is easy doesn't really know what a teacher does for a living.

Of course there are ways to release stress and blogging is one of them.
Don't you think so? Hehehe...