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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Maybe your school or department is well-staffed. Some departments are so short-staffed (NPL, maternity leave, people resigning etc), that the remaining teachers are forced to take on excessive number of classes.
Personally know of many people who were forced to take up entire levels or the entire lower sec cohort because they are the only perm staff left for that subject, and there isn't replacements for the missing headcounts. On paper, their workload fall within the 16h cap, but they see 16 classes 1h a week. Can you imagine the marking load for someone with 16X40 students?
Also, a lot of work comes in at the same time. For example, in July/Aug period in sec sch, need to teach regular classes while setting EOY papers and marking prelim papers, and also go for national exam duties, bring students out for competitions, and also plan major school events such as national days, teachers day, and at the same time ensure that committee work deadlines are met.
Kind of like the movie- Everything Everywhere All at Once.
80h week is more common than you think
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Cannot avoid peak periods like national exam duties and marking season during EOY. But one can do many things. Eg, don’t issue so many pieces of work that needs you to mark during national exam duties so you don’t have to do both at the same time. Taking an entire cohort is normal for humanities subjects like Literature, history or even geog. These teachers are rare but marking for these subjects can be fast if the teacher knows what he/she wants. Can you do peer marking in class? Leverage technology? So many things that one can do. The only real marking is maybe weighted assessment which you can negotiate for it not to fall during national exam duties.
Once you are in the system long enough, setting exam papers shouldn’t take a long time. In fact, it’s one of the easiest task because you would have sufficient resources. It may be tougher for newbies but collaborate! Think of how you can share resources with others.
Really, it’s about taking control of what you can instead of merely complaining. If one cuts down the time used to have small talks with colleagues, then you will see a drastic improvement in efficiency. Also, think of ways to empower students. Many events can be planned by students. You just need to monitor. If you want to be in control of everything, then you will surely feel the burnt out and work 80 hours per day.