Education

Teachers To Get Right To Go Offline After School Hours

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By Dolphine Chen/John Van Trieste

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New guidelines could soon end a source of stress and burnout for many teachers in Taiwan: the obligation to stay connected after school hours to answer messages from parents and administrators.

For many Taiwanese teachers, the workday ends long after class is out. In addition to standard duties like lesson planning, there are messages from parents and school administrators to answer, the back-and-forth sometimes lasting well into the evening.

A small number of schools, though, have been pushing for a change, enshrining teachers’ right to disconnect after hours. Taipei’s Longan Elementary School is one of them. Here, teachers and parents have reached an understanding, and since April, teachers are exempt from handling all but emergency situations after class.

HUANG HSIU-LIN, TEACHERS’ ASSOC. PRESIDENT TAIPEI LONGAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

"We get parents to understand that there’s a time when [they] can more effectively communicate with teachers. [Teachers] can rest properly when it’s time to rest and work hard when it’s time to work. After plenty of rest they can devote more energy to the children."

LIN YU-HSIANG, PARENTS’ ASSOC. HEAD TAIPEI LONGAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

"The parent’s association stands on the frontline safeguarding teachers by preventing certain parents from delaying teachers’ right to disconnect late at night which can cause most students’ right to education to suffer the next day."

But nationwide, most schools do not have such protections in place. That could soon change, though. On Thursday, Education Minister Cheng Ying-yao told lawmakers that new guidelines set for announcement at the end of the month will include teachers’ right to disconnection after work hours.

CHENG YING-YAO, EDUCATION MINISTER:

"We’ll include it in the guidelines for preventing workplace rights violations in schools and remind local governments to forward guidelines to schools in all places and at all levels."

Teachers’ unions see this as a way to address the burnout that's created a shortage of experienced teachers.

VOICE OF YEH CHING-CHI, NAT’L FEDERATION OF TEACHERS’ UNIONS:

"Problems with today's education system mean that even though 60% of teacher trainees enter the profession many want to leave after just a year or two. [The education ministry] needs to be more in touch with reality."

The hope is that Taiwan’s teachers will soon be better rested, less stressed, and able to focus their energy more where it counts—in the classroom.

Dolphine Chen and John Van Trieste for TaiwanPlus.