Occupational Stress among Bhutanese Teachers

The study examined the level of teacher stress and coping action among Bhutanese teachers. It further investigated if demographic variables (gender, experience, and school level) affected the level of stress on teachers. The population in this study consists of 150 teachers from 42 schools, while t-test and Oneway ANOVA are used for statistical analysis. 24.5% of the teachers reported that being a teacher was either very or extremely stressful. Male teachers faced more stress than their counterparts. The study also found that stress is most prevalent among teachers with an experience of over 10 years followed by teachers with 6-10 years of experience in teaching. The coping actions adopted by teachers were mostly palliative strategies, such as, ‘having a healthy home life’, followed by ‘reduce extra activities during school time’. Teachers reported that the most effective action that schools or the government could take to reduce teacher stress was to decrease teachers’ workload. These findings are in line with those reported in many western countries.