TO EXPLORE OCCUPATIONAL STRESS OF SCHOOL TEACHERS

Having a considerable impetus to conduct a research on occupational stress in educational setting, the present study was initiated through descriptive survey method. To collect the data “Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI)” was administered on a stratified random sample comprising of 363 male and 234 female teachers selected from 30 schools of West Bengal, India. TSI includes total 49 items – clustered in 10 factors. Each of these items is followed by a Likert-type scale that ranges from 1 to 5.To compute the total stress score sum of the mean item scores in each of the factors is taken, and then the sum is divided by 10; so, actually after normalization the score ranges from 1 to 5, with the midpoint at 3. The score at the higher end of the scale should be considered a potential problem. The result shows that the mean and standard deviation of TSI scores were 2.27 and 0.33 respectively. According to the manual, a score of 1.9 would place a respondent near the “mild strength rating”, with his or her stressful events being barely noticeable. Here on an average the teachers did not experience much stress – but their stress was above the “mild strength rating”; so it was noticeable.