Teachers' Workload Continues to Mount, Teaching Quality at Stake

The teaching profession is often called a noble job. Yet behind that label, more and more teachers feel their work has turned into a race to complete an endless list of tasks. Classroom teaching is no longer the sole responsibility. Piling administration, various government programmes, periodic reports, and additional school duties have steadily increased teachers’ workloads over time. Ironically, while the public expects better educational quality, teachers’ best time for preparing lessons is increasingly being consumed.

This phenomenon should serve as an alarm. Teachers are indeed required to be professional, but professionalism is not born from a burden that is continuously added without calculation. Teachers need space to think, design lessons, understand the character of their students, and evaluate learning outcomes. If most of their energy is spent on administrative matters, the quality of learning becomes the first casualty.

This issue also indicates that the concept of Quality of Work Life (QWL) in the education environment is not yet running ideally. QWL fundamentally speaks about how a person can work productively within a healthy, fair, and humane work environment. Unfortunately, the conditions experienced by many teachers are moving in the opposite direction. Administrative demands continue to grow, involvement in various programmes such as the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) requires additional energy and time, regulations on teacher workload are becoming more complex, while issues of welfare and limited human resources in schools remain unresolved.

The most visible impact is on teaching quality. Preparing engaging learning materials takes time. Providing feedback on student assignments also requires attention. Likewise, building a personal approach to students with different needs and characters is difficult to do if teachers must jump from one report to the next. Consequently, learning risks becoming merely a routine of chasing curriculum targets, rather than a process that truly helps students develop.

The next problem is the rise in burnout and stress. Many teachers take work home into the night because school tasks are not finished during working hours. Weekends, which should be a time for rest, often turn into opportunities to complete administration. This condition slowly erodes physical and mental health. Moreover, time with family is increasingly reduced. When life balance is disrupted in the long term, it is difficult to expect teachers to maintain positive energy every time they enter the classroom.

The welfare crisis also cannot be ignored. The increase in teachers’ workload has not always been followed by a decent increase in incentives. This condition is far more severe for honorary teachers who still receive limited income. They face work demands almost identical to permanent teachers, but the financial rewards received are often disproportionate. This situation creates a sense of injustice that ultimately affects work motivation.

In fact, the quality of education is not solely determined by the curriculum or learning technology. The most important factor remains the teacher. When teachers feel valued, have sufficient time to teach, and work in a healthy environment, student learning outcomes also tend to improve. Conversely, if teachers are continuously burdened with work outside their main duties, the large investment in the education sector will lose its maximum impact.

Therefore, reform must start from the root of the problem. The first step is to carry out debureaucratisation through the simplification of reporting and administrative systems. Digitalisation is important, but it must not merely transfer paper forms into digital forms without reducing the amount of work. An integrated system will allow teachers to enter data once for various needs, so their time returns to teaching activities.

The second step is to provide support staff for non-academic programmes. Teachers should not be the ones managing all logistical aspects, including the distribution of nutritious meals or other administrative activities that can actually be handled by special staff or volunteers. The presence of support staff will allow teachers to remain focused on their primary function as educators.

Finally, the government needs to restructure working hours more fairly. Additional duties such as being a homeroom teacher, extracurricular supervisor, school event committee member, and various other responsibilities must be counted as part of the main work component. Thus, the measurement of teacher workload becomes more realistic and no longer solely oriented towards the number of face-to-face hours.

Ultimately, improving the lot of teachers does not mean spoiling the profession. On the contrary, it is an investment to improve the quality of Indonesian education. Teachers who have a good quality of work life will teach with more focus, more creativity, and more care for their students’ development. It is time for education policy not only to add tasks, but also to ensure that every additional responsibility is balanced with support, welfare, and a more humane work system. Because when the workload of teachers continues to mount without a fair solution, what is at stake is not just the comfort of teachers, but the future of education itself.