The Future of Education

During the periodic medical check-up, workers from one high school (having 93 employee) and 2 middle schools (with 43 and respectively 35 employee)  received a voluntary questionnaire that included the following:

-socio-demographic variables (age, length of employment in the unit, biological gender, type of residence);

Six occupational stressors that scored the worker's stress (on a Likert-type scale) related to communication with colleagues, students and their parents: "Verbal violence from other employees", "Verbal violence from some students", "Verbal violence from some parents", "Physical violence from some parents", "Difficult cooperation with some parents", "Difficult cooperation with some students";

-the personality traits of Gray's Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Systems [BIS/BAS], namely anxiety, fun-seeking, drive, reward-responsiveness

- The General Health Questionnaire (12 item). This questionnaire in used as a screening instrument for mental health and psychological -psychiatric disorders in non clinical settings

In the 3 schools the level of stressors ranges from low to medium.

In all 3 schools there are positive correlations between occupational stressors as follows:

-"Verbal violence from other employees" correlates with "Verbal violence from some parents"(p1=0.001;p2=0.016;p3=0.009) and with "Physical violence from some parents"(p1=0.030 ;p2<0.001;p3=0.002);

-"Verbal violence from some parents" correlates with: "Difficult cooperation with some parents"(p1=0.001; p2=0.006;p3<0.001) an with "Difficult cooperation with some students"(p1=0.001;p2=0.016;p3=0.002);

"Verbal violence from some students" correlates with "Difficult cooperation with some students" (p1=0.001; p2=0.001; p3=0.017).

In all 3 schools, GHQ correlated with Anxiety (BIS) (p1<0.001; p2=0.044; p3=0.006).

Although the number of respondents is not large, the consistent results obtained in all 3 schools draw attention to the importance of the results obtained. Although the level of stressors related to communication problems with students and their parents is low, the data obtained lead to the conclusion that in schools, in the present and at least in the immediate future, the efficiency of student-teacher communication and in fact the success of the educational act requires the active involvement, at least from the point of view of facilitating communication, of parents.

Among school workers, although anxiety levels are not high, their association with mental health disorders shows the importance of informing workers about this issue and managing anxiety-generating situations.

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