Teachers are burned out. They believe that they are not respected enough, that the parents do not support them, nor do the management of the centers or the administration; they are overwhelmed by the bureaucracy, by the uncertainty due to the application of the successive laws. And on their backs fall the emotional and social problems of the students, regardless of their emotional situation, which is not good.
This is indicated by the report of the Teacher's Defender, from the union Anpe, which analyzes 1,947 cases of teachers who used this service in the 2022-2023 school year, although these figures are only the tip of the iceberg, underlining the national vice president of this union, Sonia García. 47% of the cases correspond to the secondary school stage.
According to this report, physical assaults (pushing, slapping or throwing objects) and false accusations against teachers have risen slightly during the 2022-2023 academic year, a professional group suffering from anxiety (77%), symptoms of depression (13%) and unemployment (12%).
Regarding students, 22% of teachers report disrespect from students; 21%, of problems in class, and another 20%, of false accusations, which consist of saying, for example, "that the teacher has not explained a topic and put it in the exam or looks at me badly ". "These are false accusations that undermine his authority, a fact that causes a high level of anxiety among the teacher, who finds it difficult to prove the falsehood of this kind of accusation and even comes to be afraid to enter the classroom ”, the report points out.
There has also been an increase in cases related to teacher cyberbullying, impersonation on social networks to ridicule him, threatening messages or pressure to raise his grades.
But this has not happened in all communities. According to Guadalupe Pérez, coordinator of the Teacher's Defender of Anpe Madrid, cyberbullying has halved in this community, which has been linked, among other factors, to the ban on mobile phones in classrooms. But few communities have endorsed this ban.
Teresa Hernández, state coordinator of the Teacher's Ombudsman service, highlights the "worrying" increase in cases of physical violence, which last year stood at 7%, compared to 6% the previous year. In these cases, the union requests an immediate sanction and that it be classified as a very serious offense with expulsion and a change of center.
As for families, what is repeated the most are false accusations (25%) and disrespect (17%). 33% report problems with the administration.
It is also true, according to the teaching staff themselves, that currently the teacher feels more protected legally thanks to a regulation that clearly establishes the powers and actions that must be followed through the coexistence decrees in force in the educational centers of the different autonomous regions. "Thanks to this, the teacher only needs to refer to the established law to apply the rule and restore a climate of coexistence and normality both in the classroom and in the educational center," says the report.
The teachers complain that the educational administrations continue to not implement a priority need such as the reduction of ratios, without providing the supports and division of fundamental groups to alleviate the learning deficits accumulated in the three covid courses, "measures that they must be complemented by the reduction of the school day to be able to devote more of the working day to the coordination, preparation and resolution of the students' demands", the report points out.
And the authors of the text request a State pact for education. "It is necessary to preserve education from the permanent and increasingly important political and ideological confrontation. Education is used as a lance weapon between the different political options, which weighs down any possibility of an agreement that wants to give stability to the education system and to the socio-working conditions of teachers and which deteriorates the school climate”.
