A teacher with a chronic pain condition was told to “grit your teeth” and carry on when she asked for help in the workplace, a teaching union has claimed.
Her story is one of a many revealed in a new survey from the Ulster Teachers’ Union, which will launch its Disability Awareness Campaign at its annual conference in Limavady on Friday.
Pauline Hurst, the UTU’s newly appointed ‘disability champion’, said the woman who suffers from chronic pain and arthritis, had “asked for reasonable adjustments with regard to how she marked pupils’ work”.
“However, she was told to just ‘grit her teeth and get on with her marking’,” she said.
“As our survey has now revealed, too often teachers are simply expected to suck it up, despite the fact they may be living with disabilities and conditions which can even result in them having to quit the profession altogether when a reasonable adjustment could make all the difference.”
The UTU says the survey lays bare the barriers staff with illness or disability routinely face in the workplace.
“The reality is that we’re increasingly aware of teachers like this woman and others who, for instance, use a stoma, have diabetes, IBS, cancer or who have hearing or sight challenges, but would rather quit teaching than ask for reasonable adjustments in the workplace because of the lack of clarity within the existing framework,” added Ms Hurst.
“It beggars belief that in 2024 this is even an issue given that schools have come so far – and rightly so – in the support of pupils with a disability or health condition, yet the Education Authority doesn’t even have statistics on the number of teachers with a disability.
“The only time staff are asked is when they apply for the job, but many people go on to develop health-related issues or have relatives whose health impacts on them too.
“In addition, an aging population means many teachers have caring responsibilities for older parents and feel they just can’t ask for time out to take them to medical appointments, for instance.
“They end up having to sign off ill themselves or take unpaid leave.”
Ms Hurst added: “We’ve teachers leaving the profession because they just don’t feel they can ask for basic accommodations”.
