Israeli Teachers Face Burnout Amidst Ongoing National Stress

A new report from the Forum of Organizations for Public Psychology reveals a significant increase in distress, psychological burden, and stress among Israeli teachers. Educators are struggling to maintain their professional roles while dealing with their own personal anxieties, fatigue, and the ongoing national uncertainty, often feeling they must hide their struggles from students.

Three years of war, uncertainty, and national crises have taken a toll not only on students but also on the educational staff who are expected to provide stability. Teachers report facing increasingly complex behavioral, emotional, and social issues from students, including bullying and inappropriate sexual behavior, all while experiencing high levels of personal distress, anxiety, depression, and stress. The report is based on data from educational psychologists and a survey of 310 psychologists working with children and youth.

Dr. Karni Gigi, an educational psychologist and a leader of the forum, noted that recent threats, such as potential escalation with Iran, have exacerbated these difficult feelings. The constant state of insecurity and anxiety deeply affects children, destabilizes families, and places a heavy emotional burden on educators who must maintain normalcy for everyone. This tension has also led to a sharp rise in reported difficulties in parent-teacher relationships, increasing from 68.5% to 79.3% over three years.

Teachers describe feeling a profound sense of burnout and helplessness, questioning their professional competence as they strive to be supportive and attentive to students while concealing their own worries about their families and personal situations. This internal conflict erodes their professional confidence. The report highlights that many teachers and kindergarten educators express significant burnout due to their personal, familial, and collective struggles with the national situation, especially if they have family members serving in the reserves or have experienced loss.

The report indicates that the distress among educational staff is widespread and growing, with 88% of psychologists reporting an increase in teachers' distress this year compared to the previous year. A significant contributing factor to this distress is the worsening relationship between educational staff and parents, with nearly 80% of psychologists reporting complaints from teachers about these strained interactions. The report concludes by calling for an urgent, multi-year national program to strengthen public psychology, including increasing staffing and resources for the public psychological service to provide essential support to Israeli children.