When people refer to weight gain or weight loss, what they mean is whether they become heavy or light. Weight is defined as the quantity of matter in a body, the heaviness of a person or thing. Being a teacher in the Philippines can somehow be compared to weight. There were reports about the suicide of a teacher from Bicol on 2017 and of a teacher from Leyte last 2018 with a common cause referring to the nature of work.
In the Philippines, the work of a teacher extends from classroom to desk to library to canteen to office to computer which in simplified term a teacher is asked to do clerical works which supposedly be done by other staff of the school. Work load can increase the heaviness the person might feel imagining how one should prepare for a lesson plan so that it can be shown and checked by the department head and the principal to see if you prepared the lesson well, how one needs to submit other papers to comply with the deadline whether the deadline is really the deadline or the deadline is for the collection but the deadline of submission is still yet to come, how one wants to have a good earning and a good amount of bonus so he will do the best he can to meet the objectives on performance evaluation and lastly imagine how one despite the demands of the work will act as the second parent of the student monitoring the student’s behavior and doing home visitation just in case the student is not present for more than a day or is not doing well on assessment and evaluation. The quantity of work and the pressures of handling that certain quantity may generate an impact to ones state of mind. According to the study conducted by Harvard Business Review, on the 18 states of mind chart it is calm, happy and energized that drive the greatest levels of effectivity and performance while frustrated, anxious, tired and stressed are relatively common being detrimental in the long term. The latter state of mind may lead to being burnout the result to unhappiness and detachment that can greatly affect ones job and relationship with people.
While the following stated above can be observed quickly among teachers and schools, the question lies to the system itself if it will increase the weight of work among teachers resulting to stress, burnout, resignation and worst suicide or removing some weight and give it to people qualified for the job description not only producing equity in the amount of work but strengthening education in the Philippines because teachers can be productive and efficient.
By: Ms. Ana Rosette S. Garcia | Jose Rizal Institute
