PUSHY, abusive parents need to calm it down in the playground, say Scotland’s stressed-out teachers.
The call comes after a large-scale study suggested 40 per cent of primary teachers were the victims of “negative parental behaviour” either at school or online every month.
Teachers unions say the situation is so bad there needs to be “clear parameters for parent and carer contact with teachers.”
The report by Bath Spa university, released last week, surveyed 4,947 teachers and suggested 40 per cent are desperate to leave their job in the next 18 months.
While reforms, cuts, poor pay, and a high number of demands were the main drivers of the stress causing teachers to rethink their career choice, the report authors pointed out many had difficulty with parents.
Over the last week The National has spoken to a number of primary teachers on the condition of anonymity.
While all said the abuse came from a minority of parents, every single teacher said it took up a huge amount of their time.
Many teachers had been threatened physically, others had been sent abusive messages and it was common for teachers to find themselves the subject of complaints to council bosses because a parent disagreed with a school decision.
A teacher from the north-east said: “Local authorities could handle complaints from parents with a greater degree of forcefulness – but they wouldn’t get backing from those above to do so because parents vote for politicians.
“So politicians pander to the idea of parents having control of education rather than educators.”
A teacher in a middle-class central belt school told The National the problems on her patch often stemmed from a perception of teaching as a job of little worth.
“A parent once said to me ‘I didn’t pay £70,000 extra for my house for you to tell me my daughter is in the middle reading group’.”
One Glasgow teacher agreed, saying: “You’re teaching kids whose parents are lawyers and doctors and things like that, and some of those people don’t think teachers are clever.
“So the children don’t particularly think teachers are clever. They don’t hold education in a high regard – it’s very much a means to an end for them.
“We need to re-professionalise. Better wages, better conditions. Give the status back to the profession”.
One of the measures which schools are judged on in inspections is parental engagement and family learning.
This measure, one Glasgow head said, can make it terrifying for schools to upset parents.
“There’s loads of positives from parental involvement but when it goes wrong it goes badly wrong and schools are held responsible,” she said.
“I once had a five page complaint written about me to the director of education – five pages! – because I didn’t give the answer someone’s dad wanted on the phone. People can lose you your job – by going straight to the top over an undone piece of homework or over a child getting a row.
“They should say, ‘This is a partnership, here are your responsibilities, here are the school’s responsibilities.’”
EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said: “Teachers value positive working relationships with parents and carers, based on mutual trust and respect. However, schools also have to ensure that teachers are provided with an appropriate working environment and this does include setting clear parameters for parent and carer contact with teachers.”
Joanna Murphy, the chair of the National Parent Forum of Scotland said: “The Scottish education system has changed in lots of ways over the past few years, and many parents don’t understand how it works.
“Parents can become frustrated due to this lack of knowledge of the system and sometimes a perceived belief that their child is being overlooked or missing out on something. Resorting to verbal or online abuse is never the answer but in general schools need to communicate better”.
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