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PRIVATE SCHOOLS TEACHERS DEPRESSED

02/09/2020 07:13:00 BY SITHEMBILE HLATSHWAYO

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MBABANE – Social media users usually joke that depression is real and it seems like this is a reality in the COVID-19 era.

An undisclosed number of teachers employed by private schools in the country have in the past four months allegedly checked into the country’s National Psychiatric Referral Hospital due to depression.

This follows that most of the teachers no longer have a source of income as their salaries were stopped after schools were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic as means of protecting pupils from contracting the virus.

Currently, Form Vs, Form IIIs and Grade VIIs are the only ones that have resumed lessons.

However, most private schools have low admissions and this has made the teachers to suffer during this period.

Affected

Such has reportedly affected the private school teachers whose earnings solely depended on the running of schools and payment of school fees by the pupils.

According to Dr Violet Mwanjali from the National Psychiatric Referral Hospital, in the past four months, between 120 and 150 patients with stress-related challenges were attended to on a daily basis and they included those employed by private schools.

Mwanjali said they were overwhelmed to some extent as most patients preferred the psychiatric hospital as it was believed to have the personnel skilled in issues of mental illness. However, she noted that some other hospitals also attended to such cases. She stated that most of the affected teachers were failing to cope as they were no longer getting salaries from their employer, something that had resulted in stress.

Mwanjali said most of the patients were currently facing similar challenges, adding that the employers as well, were checking-in due to financial challenges as they did not have money to pay their staff.

She said COVID-19 had played a huge role in the increasing number of patients who were attended to for depression.“The main cause of depression is anxiety. Anything that exposes the body to stress can result in depression,” said Mwanjali.

Furthermore, she said most people who were self-employed were also affected by stress due to COVID-19 in general.

Dr Mwanjali said most of those who were self-employed were affected by the temporary closure of their businesses due to the partial lockdown as they could not generate any income.

Meanwhile, she stated that there were some people who were strained by the fact that their relatives had contracted COVID-19 or themselves.

These, she said, included healthcare workers who were working in the frontline and feared that they might contract the virus.

Mwanjali said coping methods for depression varied from each individual, which included among others limiting meals.

Minimise

Also, she noted that avoiding listening to news could also be another way, adding that it was important to minimise hearing COVID-19 news as it caused stressful feelings on some people.

“As some people watch the COVID-19 news and see people dying and also see the symptoms, they start to feel the symptoms and begin feeling down.” Mwanjali noted that protecting oneself against COVID-19 was important and could ease strong fears that one could be exposed.

She said what also relieved fear was hand-washing, wearing of masks and social distancing despite knowing that there was a current condition going on.

Meanwhile, Eswatini Private Schools Association member and Director of Phumelele High School in Matsapha which is also a private school, Sabelo Mavuso, said they were faced with a huge challenge following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mavuso said the challenge they had was that some of the private schools were still new in the industry and already had hired employees who needed to be paid.

He said the directors of those schools were bound to suffer depression due to the fact that they found themselves having to pay a high number of teachers.

Mavuso said the teachers themselves could not manage the stress as they were renting houses, which they had to pay for and their landlords did not understand when they explained their situation.

He noted that despite some of the grades reopening, private schools had a low admission, while others were also renting premises.

This, he said, added to their stress because when the pupils were not at school, the bills continued escalating.

Mavuso said nowadays people tended to be afraid as the dangers of depression exposed others to become prone to COVID-19.