Teachers 'average 9 days of sickness'

May 28 2010

The majority of state school teachers in England were signed off sick in 2009, new official figures have shown.

According to the Department for Education, 308,000 teachers (56 per cent) took an average of almost nine days leave each last year. The figures also revealed that 11,500 more full-time teachers were employed in England in 2009 compared to a year earlier, totalling the equivalent of 783,200 staff.

In addition, the annual results showed a drop in the number of teaching vacancies, with the figure of available jobs falling by 670 to 1,570 over the period.

In other news, Anne Parry, chair of Papyrus, the national charity for the prevention of young suicide, has said that schools must have support systems in place to cater for their teachers' mental health issues.

Her comments came after a study by the National Union of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers said that a target-driven culture coupled with lack of support from schools' management teams has prompted many stressed teaching staff to contemplate suicide.

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