Overbearing parents are contributing to high levels of stress and burnout among teachers, a new report has concluded.
The Teacher Occupational Wellbeing Research 2025 from DCU Create surveyed over a thousand primary and secondary schools.
It found that 86% of teachers felt they were suffering moderate to high levels of personal burnout.
While 85% said they suffered from moderate to high work-related burnout.
On Newstalk Breakfast, TUI President Anthony Quinn said there are a number of reasons why so many teachers feel stressed and overworked.
“42% are unlikely to remain as teachers and 83% of teachers have received no training or support in managing their personal well-being or mental health,” he explained.
“Now, the report does identify a myriad of factors such as heavy workloads, unrealistic parental expectations, organisational issues and challenges and supporting students with educational needs.
“All of these are contributing to teacher stress levels.”
A stressed teacher. Picture by: Alamy.com.Despite this, Mr Quinn stressed that teachers do “welcome parental contributions”, describing education as a “shared endeavour".
However, he added it is important people understand that teaching in Ireland is not easy.
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“We have the highest class contact hours in the whole of the European Union,” he said.
“We have the largest class sizes in the EU and all these demands that are being placed.
“We would love to particularly give attention to every single child but when you have class sizes of 30, it's very hard to spread yourself across that.
“We also have huge curriculum and reform churn; we have a new junior cycle introduced at second level and also a new senior cycle coming.”
Main image: A mother And her daughter at parents' evening. Picture by: MBI / Alamy Stock Photo.
