NUTP links illnesses to work stress

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) believes there is a connection between work stress at school and the number of teachers falling sick with serious illnesses.
Secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng said many young teachers were suffering from burnout, with women teachers suffering from cancer and the men from heart-related problems.
“Although we have no scientific proof, we believe it is connected to the work stress they are under, based on our verbal interviews with teachers,” she said when asked to elaborate on her working paper on Stress Management in Malaysian Schools: Helping Teachers and Students to Optimise their Performance at the 10th Malaysian Education Summit yesterday.
According to NUTP statistics, she said there are about 50 cases each year, with an insurance payout of RM2mil in total.
“Claims vary according to the illness, and range from RM44,000 to RM120,000,” she said, adding that most teachers remained in the profession after receiving the insurance claims.
She said these teachers were found mainly in urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur or in schools where the student population was high.