Over the years, the workload of staff working in educational institutions has steadily increased. In addition to traditional lesson planning, grading, and feedback, teachers spend significant amounts of time on other school-related tasks.
School staff includes not only teachers but also other employees such as counselors, aides, food service staff, and technical personnel, all of whom are essential for the school’s operations. Each member of the staff plays a vital role in ensuring that the school achieves its goals and that students receive high-quality education and support.
Although school staff are typically dedicated to their work and strive to help students succeed, the demanding workload may cause stress and burnout for many. What has increased the burden on educational staff, and what measures could potentially alleviate their workload?
School staff in educational institutions often have to dedicate their work hours not only to teaching but also to supporting diverse student needs, different projects and initiatives, and interactions between school and home.
Thus, employees must be prepared to handle individual student needs, behavior problems, and work collaboratively with parents and other professionals.
In recent years, administrative work for school staff has increased significantly. Principals, teachers, and other support staff now spend hours each week on administrative tasks, such as reporting, collecting statistics, budgeting, and other similar tasks.
One major reason for the increase in administrative work is the changing curriculum and the introduction of new teaching technologies. Today, curricula require the management of various teaching platforms and data collection systems, which require staff to continuously invest time and resources.
Administrative work has also increased because many administrative tasks have been transferred to schools by state or municipal decision-making. This has led to staff having to perform many tasks that were previously centralized at the state or municipal level.
Cost-effectiveness in educational institutions is a factor that affects the quality of education and working conditions for staff. In the school context, cost-effectiveness means that the institution achieves its goals and produces its services as efficiently and economically as possible, thus promoting employee well-being in the process.
One important way to improve cost-effectiveness is to use resources optimally. Successful resource allocation carefully plans teacher workload and working hours so that they can focus on teaching effectively and supporting students.
Secondly, staff can improve their skills and education. When staff have a high level of expertise, they can perform their tasks more efficiently and produce better results for teaching and learning.
In addition, institutions can improve their operating procedures and use innovative technologies and systems for teaching and scheduling, so that resources can be used more effectively.
It is essential that schools and decision-makers recognize the challenges of increasing workload and seek solutions to reduce it. This may include outsourcing or automating administrative tasks so that staff have more time for their main teaching tasks.
A cost-effective daily rhythm and the well-being it brings is also crucial for students’ school days, as it directly affects the quality of their education and the number of available services. A carefully planned whole contributes to, for example, sufficient teaching hours, necessary support, and other learning-promoting resources.
Both monitoring and developing the well-being of the staff and daily operations are absolutely essential for the institution to be able to provide quality education to its students also in the future.