KUALA LUMPUR — The issue of teacher workload needs to be addressed holistically and continuously through strengthening the scope of work and providing a sustainable support system to ensure that the mental and physical well-being of educators continues to be maintained.

In this regard, measures to streamline administrative tasks, increase teaching staff and provide a sustainable support system are critical to ensure that the physical and mental well-being of the group does not continue to be neglected.

Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Dr Mohammad Faiz Ikhlas said teacher workload does exist and is due, among other things, to filling in too much data, an unstable online data entry system, student discipline issues and assignment instructions outside of working hours.

He said the pressure to achieve school performance targets often forces teachers to ‘steal’ breaks until late at night, thus affecting the quality of their personal and family lives.

“Some teachers experience emotional stress, fear, and some even experience fatigue or burnout. It also directly affects the quality of their teaching and personal lives,” he told Bernama.

Mohammad Faiz said that among other factors contributing to stress are external tasks such as training students for competitions on weekends, in addition to financial constraints that force teachers to find their own funds to ensure school participation.

Commenting on the recent incident involving the death of a teacher, he suggested that the issue of workload be given serious attention and praised the move by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to limit school opening meetings to a maximum of two days starting from the 2026 session.