A 2024 cross sectional study in Tamil Nadu found 74.3% of teachers responding as high perceived stress, in a similar one in January 2025 of 234 university teachers in Kerala, 84% reported moderate to high stress. Another pandemic-era study (Godbole et al 2021) reported 32% stress prevalence, while most pre-2020 studies report lower ‘high stress’ rates.
It is about time we all collectively condescend to consider the profession of teaching as having no bounds at all. Once a child is admitted to school, parents are absolutely free to use the name of the teacher on everything, and the management simultaneously can employ the person to anything inside or outside the classroom. It is therefore unsurprising that there is a rise in “stress” among these teachers. Stress is the state of imbalance between the demands placed on the individual and his/her ability to handle them. Any task that is beyond the individual’s resources is deemed as stressful – and the resources can be physical, mental or material.
The teacher has to handle excessive workloads in very high time constraints; and almost erase the line between personal and professional life. He/she must appear calm and encouraging before the student, suppressing their own emotions at all times, and hold themselves both as a figure of authority, a close friend and a reliable source for each and every student and their parents, whether it is exam day, school picnic, or normal lessons. The AI and technology have brought a sudden generation gap between the teacher and students, and almost in harmony the administrative policies keep changing frequently enough that the training a teacher receives today is inadequate by the next month.
Dr.Gomathi Jain, an associate professor [at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education (CETE), TISS, Mumbai], says that AI has started making educators feel irrelevant as it being perceived as a replacement. Students’ overdependence on AI and the reduced engagement with learning resulted in increasing teacher’s workload as they have to spend more time in verifying the originality of student’s assignments or response.
The Consequences
The part that makes stress intolerable and disables the person from doing any other task is, of course, its aroused state. The human body is designed for survival, and anything that is in any way threatening to its survival is a cause of stress. It does not differentiate between the sight of a tiger or an important work deadline, so any stressful event pushes the body into a fight or flight state, which is characterised by high heart rate and BP, tensed muscles, digestive issues or sleep disturbances. The aroused state uses up all of the body’s energy sources, and if the body is under stress for a long time, it eventually shuts down. The individual faces chronic fatigue, and at one point, the mental processes dysfunction as well. Concentration, memory, mood swings and feelings of frustration arise. The person may then depend on the use of substances like excess coffee, drugs, tobacco or alcohol to cope. He begins to avoid more responsibilities, and simply exists helpless and overwhelmed – leading to more causes of stress in the future, and the cycle continues.
In the classroom, such a teacher enters a kind of depersonalisation where a very resentful and alienated attitude is taken towards the students, leading to less empathetic interactions, reduction is job satisfaction, motivation and general productivity.
Despite the fact that a limited amount of stress is necessary for growth and productivity, only when this limit is crossed unreasonably, and the individual is expected to perform more than their abilities, then the stress becomes harmful. Harmful to the extent of death.
Short Term Solutions
So if unchecked stress is that fatal, it is not only needful, but immediately vital to understand the ways to manage the stress. The NCERT teacher’s survey 2023 found that 79% of the teachers disagreed with the statement “working as a teacher is stressful” but almost all of them continued to describe the symptoms of stress and burnout in the qualitative comments. This shows that a majority of teachers do no self-identify as stressed. Why is that? Prejudice towards the term “stressed” as it indicates professional weakness in a way. The first step, then, is to understand that it is not so. Stress is simply the body’s signal of overheating, and all we require to do is to attend to the signal.
Stress management may require different methods, based on the extent and the event of the stress, such as direct problem solving if the stressor is addressable, or emotion-focused management to change our negative emotions if the event is out of control. Cognitive reframing also allows the person to change their outlook to a more positive one, so that the same event is perceived as a challenge or opportunity instead of a threat, and hence reduces the stress.
Some instant techniques like deep breathing/box breathing, Grounding exercises (5-4-3-2-1), or brain dumping can help to provide immediate relief in the middle of the stressful situation by calming the body and reminding it that you are still in control, but if the stressor or the event is likely to be long-term and stretch for years, then it requires a complete change in lifestyle and mindset to adapt to it.
Long Term Solutions
On a personal level, this may include seeking relief in religion and spirituality. Regular physical exercise, healthy diet and sleep schedule that prepare the body for future stress and reduce its effects, while mental activities such as engaging in hobbies, reading, emotional expression and social interaction may strengthen the mind and its ability to deal with stress. Time management is also a major feature in stress prevention, as more than half of the pressure arises due to a lack of time to do a given task.
But institutionally, there is a need for creating a conducive environment, a sort of peer group that makes space for support and encouragement rather than a place for conflict and pressure. Dr. Jain also suggests AI-focused training programmes that help the teachers to perceive AI as a partner than as a threat.
Dr. Ali Khwaja, a counsellor and life skills coach from the Banjara Academy, while describing the measure to take against stress says that we need to bring down the focus and constant pressure of tests and exams. The teachers should be trained and trusted to evaluate students on a continuous basis. Completion of portions should not be mandatory and teachers should be allowed to initiate a discussion and brainstorming on each subject and take the views of different students. They should be given facilities to improve their physical and mental health.Counselling should be available to any teacher who is showing any signs of stress.
Stress is inevitable, and for teachers who carry the weight of so many futures, acknowledging stress is not weakness; it is wisdom. We need to strive to not only eliminate stress, but recognise it and respond to it in the way it requires.