INTRODUCTION:

In this era of globalization, pressure and stress are increasing aligns with the rapid
pace of change and increasing demands in many aspects of life among the individuals
regardless of their field of work. These stresses are important just to ensure the specified
standards and qualities are met and maintain. When the high amounts of stressful situations
go unresolved, people may encounter physical, emotional, and mental health problems for
instance distress which resulting in risk of burnout !cott, "#$"%. &aslach et al., "##$%
defined burnout as a syndrome of emotional e'haustion, cynicism, and reduced professional
efficacy. In the work conte't e'haustion refers to feelings of strain resulting from e'cessive
demands on work. (ynicism is uninterested in one)s work and not seeing work as
meaningful. Whereas, lack of professional efficacy is refers to diminished feelings of
competence, as well as less successful achievement and accomplishment both in one)s job
and in the organization. The phenomenon of burnout is well*known among all professions
especially for those who require intensive permanent relationship with other people and his
or her work environment &aslach, !chaufeli, + ,eiter, "##$%. In educational settings
especially in school conte't burnout can be suffered not only among school administrators
but also teachers. This is because teachers are responsible in creating a permanent
relationship with leaders, students and parents. They are importance to play the role in
ensuring the one)s school education system is quality enough and outstanding. -ertaining to
this responsibility, they are facing e'tensive pressures to work hard in their profession as
e'pected. In such scenario, there are too many questions that may arise such as. if the
teachers prone to many of the same pressures that trap burnout sufferers, are they defined
the term correctly/ 0re the novice teachers and senior teachers encounter the same
problems/ Which of the teachers is mainly to suffer burnout and how the burnout problem
may affect their profession and then what can we e'pect from the level of burnout as the
signs of it are vary with each individual/ Thus, this essay primarily aims to highlight the
issues regarding the factors of burnout among teachers which are the workload problem and
administrative supports and then the issue regarding the main effect of this psychological
problem which is early retirement among teachers.
.
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FIRST FACTOR OF BURNOUT: WORKLOAD PROBLEM.
The first factor of burnout among teachers is the workload problem. 0ccording to
&erriam Webster 1ictionary "#$2%, workload is refers to the amount of work or
of working time e'pected or assigned. 3owadays, teachers have both clerical and teaching
responsibilities. &eaning that, they are not only teaching students but also need to do
clerical and administrative works. 4enerally average hours of work of a teacher are 25 hours
per week &ike, "#$"%. 6f the total 78.98 hours they used to manage and conduct academic
affairs, while the remaining hours was used for non*academic tasks. 6n average, a teacher
needs to hold at least si' positions in school which are as classroom teachers, job*related
e'tra*curricular activities and special tasks assigned.
It is e'pected by our government to produce quality teachers that teach and educate
students in order to produce quality students that can serve to our nation. :ut, can this
dream become a reality if the teachers burdened with the need to prioritize the core
business of teaching and at the same time burdened with the requirement to complete other
tasks on time/ 0ccording to ;ashim 0dnan, president of 3ational -arent*Teacher
0ssociation (ollaborative (ouncil in an interview with 3ew !trait Times, he highlighted that
most teachers are passionate about their core business which is teaching, but because they
are being overloaded with non*academic duties it can be overwhelming for them to be the
best
teachers for their students Ili ,iyana &okhtar, "#$7%. !ometimes they are asked to attend
meeting and courses that are not related to their job and take them away from classrooms.
Thus, how they can be a quality teacher if they are not around and cannot enter the
classroom to conduct lesson/
6ther than that, at present teachers in &alaysia are facing e'tensive pressures from
the changes made in education system. <or e'ample, the teaching hour for the =nglish
teachers has been increases thus brings the idea that their workload is increase and hence
brings about the assumption that their burnout level has also risen. The teaching periods had
increased from ># * "2# to 77# minutes a week for primary $, " and 7. &eanwhile, for
primary 2, 5 and 9 it has increased from ># * "$# minutes to 7## minutes a week. Whereas
for the secondary schools, their teaching periods had increased from ?# * "## to "?#
minutes a week.
&oreover, the school curriculum at both primary and secondary levels is revised to
embed a balanced set of knowledge and skills such as creative thinking, innovation, problem
solving, and leadership &alaysia education blueprint "#$7*"#"5, "#$"%. This new
curriculum is emphasis on problem*based and project*based work, a streamlined set of
subjects or themes, and formative assessments. <or e'ample is the !chool :ased
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0ssessment !:0%. This idea can makes teachers feel burden with vast amount of work to
accomplish and syllabus to cover consequently in emerging of stress among them. If they
cannot cope with these hardships involved they may give up in their responsibilities and
have psychological problems that may risk to burnout.
(urrently, statistical showed that teachers in this country suffer from high levels of
stress. 3ovice teacher who are in teaching profession not more than five years, tend to
burnout more as they are lack of e'perience in handling the problems. They need to make
sure to construct their own instrument, checking, compiling and entering data into the
system which involves a lot of students. 3ot only that as they are lack of patient, perhaps
due to lack of time and system vulnerabilities may cause them to burnout faster. Thus, it
may affect their performance and then cause them to leave the teaching profession.
SECOND FACTOR OF BURNOUT: ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORTS PROBLEM.
The second factor of burnout among teachers is administrative supports. The need
for administrative support is also frequently cited as a critical condition of work. ,ack of
administrative support is a category that includes but is not limited to the following teacher
perceptions which principals are @not supportiveA if they do not handle students) discipline to
the teachers) liking, they do not understand the instructional program the teachers are trying
to offer, they do not provide the time and resources the teachers believe necessary, they do
not value teachers) opinions or involve them sufficiently in decision making, they do not
support them in disputes with parents or fail to listen to their problems and suggestions.
0dministrative support for teachers includes providing classroom materials and supplies,
facilitating teacher involvement in the decision making process, and furnishing reliable
mentors for new teachers. In urban schools, teachers also use @lack of administrative
supportA as jargon to signify their belief that the principal has engaged in @dumpingA, or has
@dumpedA on them. This means that they believe the principal who assigned them with too
many students with discipline problems, with special needs, those lacking in basic skills, or
even too many male students to their classrooms basically dumping them or throwing them
away.
6ften teacher dissatisfaction leading to burnout can be the result of administrative
demands and performance pressures. 0 common complaint is that teachers can only be
successful if their students achieve on specific inde'es of performance. Teachers are often
burdened with new state*driven curriculum and standardized testing. In fact, teachers have
even reported they are unwilling to take time off to handle stress due to fears they might hurt
their students) chances on the ne't standardized tests. This load can be e'acerbated by
more controlling administrators. -ut simply, when administrators take a controlling stance on
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teachers to improve test score outcomes, teachers are more likely to take a less effective
and more controlling instructional approach with students thus drawing more demands from
a controlling administrator. The results help neither teacher nor students. -erceived
administrative support, however, has been shown to be the most important predictor of
teachers) job satisfaction. 6verwhelmingly, teachers feel stressed by factors beyond their
control.
The novice teachers identified a lack of administrative support as almost causing
them to leave teaching forever, and described the actions of their principal as mean and
disheartening. They indicated that the principal in urban school used a coarse, militant style
of discipline. 0dministrators need to present themselves to teachers as leaders who have
managerial tasks, not managers who lead. 6ften, administrators focus on the managerial
tasks and lose faith from teachers due to the lack of communication and collegial
relationships. Teacher disconnects and teachers) stress occurs when administrators
disengage from teachers and neglect to consult with teachers on a variety of critical school
matters. When communication, transparency and teamwork break down between
administrators and teachers, stress and conflict will occur. This conflict may result in
teachers having a lack of confidence and respect for the administration and build a negative
climate among teachers. This negativity will result in emotional stress, resulting in burnout.
EFFECT OF BURNOUT: EARLY RETIREMENT AMONG TEACHERS
=arly retirement among teachers is one of the effects of burnout. When people are
tired of doing something, they tend to stop doing it and preferably as early as they can. It is
whether they simply stop doing it or they do it in a different manner. 0s in working
profession, we call it as Bretirement) which means leaving oneCs job and cease to work,
typically upon reaching the normal age for leaving employment. !ome of them willingly to
retire according to the compulsory age for retirement and some choose to leave as early as
they can. The question is, why does one chooses to retire early/
There are many theories as to why one chooses to retire even when they still
capable and needed to serve their company. Desearch suggested that one of the reasons is
due to burnout. -eople are too tired of their job and possibly cannot survive another second
doing the job that they are currently doing. 3ot only e'perienced or senior teachers tend to
choose retire early but also the novice one. 3ovice teachers face many challenges and often
have many problems and it is reported that about 2#E to 5#E leave teaching during the first
five years &oir + 4less, "##$%.
Teaching profession in &alaysia for e'ample, the compulsory age for retirement has
been raised to 9# years old by the "#$". Would a teacher be able to stand the years of
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teaching until they are 9#/ -assionate teachers may be able to hold on to the spot that they
are standing on but some might give up earlier than they e'pected. 0ccording to the
research of two researches from FG&, the implication of burnout within the teaching
profession is on a serious level Ftusan &alaysia 6nline, $>>>%. &ost of the teachers gave
the same reason for why they wanted to retire early which is burnout. 0ccording to the two
researchers, there are some teachers who say CCgoodbyeCC to the profession and get involved
in other professions that can provide them with job satisfaction and financial security. <rom
their perspective, the decision to restrict teachers) early retirement is not the best solution.
This will only make the teacher to feel like they are trapped or B=ntrapment) in the profession
that they are trying to get out from. <eeling trapped would only bring to more burnout which
could lead to the worst case scenario.
The e'tension of retirement age for teachers is really improper and this policy should
be given as a choice not compulsory. This is because it will not give negative impact to the
teachers themselves but also other people especially students. If the burnout teachers are
require to stay in their profession until the age limit is reach are they still motivated to teach
their students/ 6f course notH Thus, the students) performance may be affected. If the
retirement age is early, it may benefit to the fresh graduated students. They can get the job
as the teachers and can teach the students energetically and proactive. They can apply all
the knowledge and skills studied at university for 2 years to their students. Thus, this highly
motivated people can put e'tra effort to increase the students) performance. <or e'ample,
student test scores increase in districts where more novice teachers replaced veterans
Ghadeeja !afdar, "#$7%. This is because e'perienced teachers put in less effort as they
approach retirement. They might not invest as much because they really want to retire.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION:
0s a conclusion, burnout among teachers can cause early retirement of teachers due
to unresolved workload problem among teachers and lack of administration supports for
them. :urnout is most often viewed in the conte't of the relationship between the teachers
and his or her work environment. :ecause of the teaching profession is a profession that
does not have a clear division between the working and non*working time, thus this situation
may create stress for teachers. If the teachers either novice or senior teachers failed to cope
with the variety negative stress situations thus results in burnout among them. :urnout
brings about negative effects in the instructional system leading to unsuccessful students
learning. It is well*known that prevention is better than cure. Thus, burnout can be prevent by
the teachers themselves, principals and government efforts especially 3ational Fnion of
Teaching -rofession 3FT-% and &inistry of =ducation &6=%.
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0s a first step, the teachers need to take their own actions to prevent the burnout
from happen or if it has happen, they need to take action to recover it and avoid it from
happen again. 0ccording to &elinda, Ieanne and Dobert "#$2%, teachers can prevent
burnout by learn how to manage stress. 0s the unresolved stress can lead to burnout, the
teachers can start a !tress Iournal. This journal is something like reflective teaching journal.
If the reflective teaching journal may help the teacher to reflect on teaching matter, this
stress journal may help them to identify the regular stressors in their life and the way they
deal with them. =ach time they feel stressed, they need to keep track of it in the journal.
Thus, this idea may help them to feel better thus avoiding burnout to happen. In one seminar
entitle @!eminar &encari Fsahawan dan -rofessional 0laf :aruA organised by students from
FiT& !hah 0lam, one of the speakers which is an e'perienced teacher and motivator, &r.
0zman 0bas highlighted that the most crucial stressor is the relationship of the teachers with
administrator. ;e said that if this relationship is bad, thus the tendency to burnout among the
teachers is high. This is because, one of the burnout recovery strategies is to get support. :y
having support from administrators, all works can be done easily and efficiently as well as
their hard work has an opportunity to be acknowledged. Thus, it is important for the teachers
to create networking with administrators to increase their motivation to pursue their
profession happily. ;is advice to teachers out there is in order to build good networking, they
need to fulfil their admins) requirements first before their students) requirements.
6ther than that, the &inistry of =ducation can take several steps such as organizing
workshops, seminars and courses, with regard to the stress that occurs among teachers. 0s
the saying goes Jprevention is better than treatA. To conduct the stress and time
management workshops for teachers in school is not necessarily a specific time need to be
allocated. It can be conduct as one of the activity for ,atihan 1alam -erkhidmatan ,010-%
program, a program that is compulsory for each school to conduct to develop and increase
the teacher)s professional development. Thus, by having such activity, the teachers can
e'change ideas with other teachers in managing their stress problem. &inistry of =ducation
also can provide at least three teaching assistants for each department at school especially
for the core subjects like !cience, &athematics, ;istory and ,anguages. This idea of
teaching assistant is actually has been proposed by 3FT- in order to help teachers to
reduce their workload. It is hope that &6= can approve this proposal as the role of teaching
assistants is very crucial in reducing the number of burnout teachers in &alaysia. The
teaching assistants can help them in terms of managing clerical and non*academic duties
such as conducting co*curricular activities, organising projects, managing studentsK relieving
them of precious time to better prepare lesson plans. Thus the teacher can focus on their
core business which is teaching. 0ccording to 1atin 3oor 0zimah 0bdul Dahim, (hairman of
-arent 0ction 4roup for =ducation &alaysia, she said that the fresh graduates can be
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assigned as the teaching assistant at school The !tar 6nline, "#$7%. This is because, fresh
graduates usually have very good passion towards their job. Thus, this idea not only can
reduce workload consequently reduce the burnout symptoms among teachers but also can
reduce the amount of unemployed graduates in &alaysia. This is what people called as kill
two birds with one stone.
3e't, principal as the leader of the teachers should take action in reducing burnout
among their followers. !avvy principals realize they cannot leave the induction of new
teachers into the fabric of the school environment to chance, or more importantly, to the
wrong people. It must be planned with care and forethought. These principals systematically
support their new teachers in four key areas which are creating a culture of collaboration
focused on student achievement, providing for the basic material and physical needs of
teachers, scheduling training about Jhow school worksJ at strategic points in the school year
and providing professional support to novice teachers.
(reating a culture of collaboration focused on student achievement. 0 school culture
set up this way will naturally provide support for new teachers as time and structures are
established for them to work with and learn from their e'perienced peers. -rincipals in a
professional learning community, as described by professional development author Dick
1ufour and others assign an on*staff mentor to work with each new teacher on instruction
and curriculum, or they take this on themselves.
-roviding for the basic material and physical needs of teachers. <or e'ample, new
teachers are allocated additional supply money for school materials, as they are usually the
least likely to be able to afford to spend their own money on classroom supplies. They are
not asked to travel between classrooms if space is tight. They are given assignments and
students where success is more likely for both students and teacher. They are skipped on
the supervision or duty schedule.
!cheduling training about Jhow school worksJ at strategic points in the school year.
<or e'ample, they provide e'pectations and support for the back*to*school or parent
orientation meeting at the beginning of the year. They share e'pectations for grading student
work and the provision of feedback to students and parents before the first grade*reporting
period. In other words, they provide the scaffolding necessary for success.
-roviding professional support to novice teachers. -rincipal can establish mentoring
program for novice teachers to help them in teaching and school matters. The mentors are
selected from e'perienced teachers who has demonstrated proficiency in content knowledge
and instructional technique, and who knows the culture of the individual school, the goals of
the system, and of the state. The mentor can helps the novice teachers in conte't of
classroom and time management, methods of assessingLmonitoring student progress,
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communicating with parents, school policies and procedures. 6ne of the activity in this
program is supervision by the mentor. Thus, this mentoring program can provide timely
support for the novice teachers. The e'periences and guidance from the e'perience
teachers may help the novice teacher to enhance skills and knowledge and at the same time
able to cope with any stressors can bring to burnout symptoms among them.
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