Stress Management Strategies and Teachers’ Effectiveness in Public Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of stress and its management and control, and how this can affect the effectiveness of teachers in public senior secondary schools in Rivers States. The paper further explains what stress is—that stress is the disequilibrium of the body metabolism, either in the physical, emotional or mental state and teachers’ stressors, which are work overload, lack of promotions, late payments of salaries, low salaries and poor work environment, etc. and how all these stressors and others, if not properly managed, can make teachers inefficient in their responsibility of imparting knowledge to the students of the public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. It also addresses how this stress could truly weigh the teachers down, with sickness, high blood pressure and even death, if not managed. And when teachers are stressed up, they cannot be effective. Strategies of managing stress among teachers as enumerated in this paper, for their optimum productivity, among others, are exercise, taking a time out with loved ones, relaxation, etc. This paper makes it bold that managing stress is very important and necessary among the teachers of the public senior secondary schools in Rivers State, for their wellness. This would make them vibrant, fit and bounce back for their effective productivity. Among other suggestions are employing teachers’ assistants to ease workload, building recreational centres for teachers and increasing teachers’ salaries. The government should also promote them promptly.