The Ministry of Education has organized a special workshop for school teachers on stress management. The workshop was facilitated by Trudy Christian, a DSC lecturer, radio personality, and entrepreneur. She stated that teachers are undergoing a lot of work-related stress and burnout without acknowledging it, a situation that can give rise to health complications in the long run.
Apart from the fact that long-term stress can lead to severe health crises, Christian stated that stress conditions experienced by school teachers has a way of rubbing off on students. She said that physical and mental or emotional stress can affect the quality of academic subjects taught by a teacher, and this can negatively impact the understanding of students in the classroom.
Christian and other workshop facilitators made it clear that teachers can improve on their teaching profession and content delivery by understanding and applying stress management techniques. According to the facilitators, people can reduce the risks of stress by limiting caffeine and alcohol intake, engaging in physical exercises, and undergoing physiotherapy from licensed experts.
The seminar organizers told participants that chronic stress can aggravate existing health conditions such as hypertension and heart disease among others, and that people should take proper care of their health by relaxing and going on vacation and dealing with stressors.
According to Christian, teaching is a very stressful profession and managing students in a classroom could leave a toll on the health and wellbeing of teachers. She noted that students will be better off in their studies if teachers enjoy holistic health that comes from effective stress management. She also encouraged parents to support and appreciate teachers for the care of their children within and outside the schools.
Christian has a Masters degree in Public Health and teaches Biology at the DSC.
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