NI education: 'Unsustainable' workloads contribute to teacher burnout

Teacher workloads in Northern Ireland are "unsustainable", one post-primary teacher has said. Brian Banks, who teaches in an integrated school in Belfast, said the workload challenges had a "knock on effect" on pupils. It comes as research by Dublin City University (DCU), in collaboration with St Mary's University College in Belfast, has found 91% of teachers in Northern Ireland are experiencing work-related burnout. More than 600 teachers across the country were surveyed for the research, with 46% saying they were likely to leave the profession due to burnout. Banks, who is also the junior vice president at teaching union NASUWT and a co-founder of a teacher workload campaign group, said teachers "bring their work home". He said that their to-do lists were "impossible to achieve," adding: "The problem with workloads is they are never-ending." The Department of Education said the minister commissioned a panel to look at the issue of workload last May and committed to produce a plan, which will be published soon. Banks worked in further education prior to post-primary teaching and suffered from burnout. His GP signed him off work for three months and he was told the solution was to