Member's statement: Education: Teachers' Workload
Member's statement by Mr Danny Baker on .
- MLA
- Mr Danny Baker
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 21 April 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Education: Teachers' Workload
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5497460
Read the official Assembly record
Text
When will the Education Minister start listening? New research from Dublin City University and St Mary's University College, Belfast, should be a wake-up call to the House. Some 91% of teachers are experiencing burnout; nearly half are considering leaving the profession; and 95% say that workload is the driving factor. In Irish-medium education, the situation is even more challenging. That is not sustainable. Teachers are running on empty. It has been a year since a workload review was commissioned and six months since recommendations were produced, yet there is still no action. Instead, the Minister piles more surveys, more consultations, more initiatives, more paperwork and more bureaucracy onto teachers and school leaders with absolutely no support, all in the pursuit of his harmful and regressive reform agenda. He is adding more pressure to a workforce that is already at breaking point. Our teachers go above and beyond every day. They bring work home. They wash uniforms. They dip into their own pockets to feed children. They are carrying the weight of the system on their back. Teachers do not need warm words; they need action. The Minister needs to listen and listen now. Our teachers have had enough. They deserve an Education Minister who has their back and who cares. For my part, I will continue to stand up for our teachers and school leaders until they get the support that they deserve.
233 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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