Teaching has long been described as a noble profession, but behind the chalk and lesson plans lies an uncomfortable reality: it is one of the most stressful careers in the modern world. A new survey revealed that 91 percent of teachers report dealing with moderate to extreme levels of stress, while a majority say they are experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Dr. Helena Granziera, a Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology at the University of New South Wales, observed that these rates are significantly higher than those in most other professions. The finding is not surprising to anyone who has stepped into a classroom, yet it raises an urgent question – why has teaching become so uniquely draining, and is there a job out there more stressful than teaching?
The stress of teaching stems from its multi-layered demands. Teachers are expected to be subject experts, disciplinarians, counselors, social workers, and role models all rolled into one. A single day in a teacher’s life is filled with juggling lesson preparation, delivering content in engaging ways, monitoring behavior, assessing learning, and managing the unpredictable emotions of dozens of young people. Unlike many professions, the work rarely ends when the school bell rings. Evenings and weekends are swallowed by grading, lesson planning, or catching up on administrative requirements. In effect, teaching has become a job that never fits neatly into contracted hours. The emotional weight of carrying the responsibility for a child’s learning and wellbeing can be relentless. Each struggling student becomes a personal concern and many teachers admit that they find themselves lying awake at night worrying about pupils whose challenges are far beyond what they can control.
The comparison with other high-pressure careers is illuminating. Surgeons, for instance, face the heavy burden of life-or-death decisions in the operating room, and air traffic controllers carry the responsibility of hundreds of lives in a single shift. Police officers and firefighters routinely encounter danger, trauma, and unpredictability. These jobs are undeniably stressful, yet the kind of stress they experience is often acute and situational. The difference with teaching is that the stress is both chronic and cumulative. It builds quietly over months and years, wearing down resilience and mental health in ways that may not be immediately visible but are no less harmful. Teachers rarely face a single moment where a decision determines life or death, but they endure an unending drip of pressure: large class sizes, underfunded resources, changing curricula, intrusive accountability systems, and rising expectations from parents and society.
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One reason teaching emerges as particularly stressful is the lack of autonomy. In many other professions, skilled workers have discretion over how they carry out their roles. In teaching, however, government directives, standardized testing, and bureaucratic micromanagement leave teachers with little room to adapt their practice. This creates frustration and a sense of being powerless, especially when educators are held accountable for results that are influenced by socio-economic factors far beyond the classroom. The mismatch between responsibility and control fuels a kind of professional despair that compounds everyday stress. Imagine being expected to cure an illness but denied the tools or authority to prescribe the right medicine – that is how many teachers describe the current reality of their work.
Adding to this is the emotional toll of witnessing student struggles firsthand. Teachers in disadvantaged communities often confront the effects of poverty, hunger, domestic instability, or trauma in their classrooms. They are expected to support children through crises while lacking professional training or resources to handle such complex needs. This vicarious stress – absorbing the pain and struggles of others – contributes heavily to burnout. Unlike doctors who may refer a patient to a specialist, teachers are left to carry the emotional load long after the child leaves their class. Over time, this continuous exposure to hardship erodes mental health, making teachers more vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Still, it would be misleading to argue that teaching is categorically the most stressful job in existence. There are professions where the stakes are immediately life-threatening. Emergency responders, soldiers in combat, or intensive care nurses face moments of acute pressure that few others can imagine. Yet when studies compare mental health outcomes across professions, teaching consistently emerges near the top in terms of chronic stress and burnout. The difference lies not in the intensity of stress at a given moment, but in its constancy. Teachers often describe their exhaustion as a marathon without a finish line. Unlike a firefighter who may have rest after a crisis, teachers face another full classroom the next morning, and the next, without much relief in sight.
What makes teaching especially tragic is that it is a profession that draws people with a deep sense of purpose and care. Most teachers enter the field because they believe in the power of education to transform lives. This idealism makes them particularly vulnerable, because the weight of not being able to meet every child’s need feels like a personal failure. The survey numbers show that this vulnerability has reached epidemic proportions. When over nine out of ten teachers report significant stress and many describe symptoms of depression, society can no longer dismiss these as isolated cases. This is not merely an individual mental health issue but a structural problem with how education systems are organized and supported.
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The consequences of ignoring this crisis are profound. Burnt-out teachers are more likely to leave the profession, creating shortages that further burden those who remain. Students are affected as well; research shows that teacher stress directly influences classroom climate, student achievement, and overall wellbeing. If society continues to overlook teacher stress, the ripple effects will harm not just educators but generations of learners. Supporting teachers is not a luxury but an urgent necessity. That means reducing unnecessary administrative tasks, providing mental health support, ensuring manageable class sizes, and trusting teachers with professional autonomy.
In the end, the debate about whether teaching is the most stressful profession may miss the more important point. Stress, whether acute or chronic, has devastating effects, and professions that consistently show high levels of burnout demand serious attention. Teaching may not involve the split-second life-or-death decisions of a surgeon or a pilot, but it does involve the daily shaping of young lives under relentless pressure and scrutiny. That reality makes it not only one of the most stressful jobs, but also one of the most critical to protect. Teachers are at the heart of society’s future, and if their mental health collapses, so does the foundation of education itself.
By Ashford Kimani
Ashford teaches English and Literature in Gatundu North Sub County and serves as Dean of Studies.
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