Teachers quitting job on health concerns in Britain: survey

More than half of newly qualified school teachers in Britain have considered quitting their jobs on health grounds, a survey by a leading mental health charity revealed Sunday.

The study by the charity, Education Support Network, showed that in the past year, two in five newly qualified teachers have experienced mental health problems.

The research discovered that teachers with less experience in the profession are more likely than experienced colleagues to suffer panic attacks, insomnia and mood swings than their colleagues.

The Independent newspaper said Sunday that 40 percent of rookie teachers have experienced a mental health issue in the past 12 months, compared to 31 percent of all teachers.

The charity has called for personal mental health and wellbeing training to be made statutory as part of the initial teacher training program.

"Unless urgent action is taken over rising mental health issues, the retention and recruitment crisis in UK schools will worsen and children's education will suffer," the charity told the Independent.

Education Support Network said high workload, poor student behavior, and mental health concerns are the most cited reasons for why these recently qualified teachers have considered quitting the profession.

The charity said in the last 12 months, there has been a 35 percent increase in teachers calling its support helpline, with almost 8,700 cases managed through the helpline.

One 24 year-old rookie teacher told the Independent that prior to becoming a teacher she was a happy graduate, full of enthusiasm, with no mental health issues.

She said poor treatment she received from senior staff during her first few years in the classroom left her feeling undermined and bullied.

The woman, who has now quit teaching, commented: "I had night terrors which left me exhausted. I would need to pull my car over to the side of the road to be sick before I arrived at school."

Julian Stanley, CEO of the Education Support Partnership, said: "Younger teachers can feel quite vulnerable saying what they are struggling with. Especially if they're in a school where there are gaps and vacancies, or particular pressures."

Stanley added that if no action is taken to resolve the problem, there is a risk of continual struggles to recruit new people into the teaching profession, with teachers leaving sooner than they might have done.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, told the Independent that unmanageable workloads are affecting teachers' mental health and wellbeing.

Courtney said: "This is resulting in complete burnout and is fuelling the recruitment and retention crisis with teachers leaving the profession in droves. If government does not make significant strides to address accountability, reduce workload and increase teacher pay this situation will worsen and will impact negatively on children and young people's education."

The Department for Education said it was committed to tackling issues that could affect teachers' mental health and wellbeing.

A spokesperson for the department said: "We understand that teacher mental health and wellbeing can be affected by a whole range of issues -- we are considering these as part of our teacher recruitment and retention strategy."