JOB SATISFACTION AND JOB STRESS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN KERALA

Education is a major factor to achieve sustainable human development in any country; and improve the quality and achieve equity are the two main goals of any educational reforms (Alaraji, 2016). In this era of technological and information revolution, the progress of any nation depends solely on the quality of education. The 21 century teachers are expected to learn modern technologies, go global, go ahead in social settings and build positive digital footprints (Odebode, 2018). The covid pandemic situation had shook the world severely and has demanded for a revamp from traditional offline mode of teaching to online mode. The present study is a reflection on job satisfaction and job stress of primary school teachers in Kerala during covid-19 pandemic period. A survey was conducted on a sample of 32 primary school teachers in Kerala. The investigator obtained different opinions with respect to different components of the variables under study. With respect to components of job satisfaction like physical facilities, rapport with students, the teachers expressed dissatisfaction, but with respect to the components like satisfaction with authorities, satisfaction with social status and family welfare, relationship with co-workers, teachers were found to be more satisfied. The components -intrinsic aspect of the job, promotional avenues and services conditions, institutional plans and policies were found to be unaltered. Job stress with respect to the components-responsibility, powerlessness, working conditions, personal inadequacy and lack of motivation, are found to be increased. The components of job stress like work relationships, work load, role ambiguity, groupism and external pressure were found to be decreased. The negative impacts on job satisfaction and job stress can be attributed to the unavailability of facilities required for teaching in an online platform and increase in over interference of parents. The positive impacts might be due to the decrease in additional works assigned to teachers, increased recognition for their work and better relationship with co-workers. The study throws light to the fact that an effort from the government and policy makers to provide adequate digital facilities might improve the satisfaction and decrease the stress level of teachers. Index Terms – Job satisfaction, job stress, psychosocial variables, primary schools, covid-19 pandemic. www.ijcrt.org © 2022 IJCRT | Volume 10, Issue 3 March 2022 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT2203149 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org b186