Congratulations to all the teachers for their day!

On the occasion of World Teachers' Day, we inform you that we have published an analytical report "We do not have three months of annual work - Perspectives of primary and secondary school teachers on work in school and social status in the Republic of Croatia".

The report is based on the results of the scientific project "Changes in the organization of the process of education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic", funded by the Croatian Science Foundation.

A survey involving 3,634 teachers from 159 primary and secondary schools strongly indicates the need to raise awareness on the complexity of teachers'work and to raise their social status.

The main findings of the research are:

• Teachers in the Republic of Croatia report a high level of job satisfaction. Most teachers still enjoy their work and find personal satisfaction and fulfillment in it.
• Employees in primary and secondary schools find their own work extremely demanding compared to the period before the pandemic.
• For teachers, the most significant sources of job stress are: overload with administrative obligations, a sense of responsibility for pupils' success, and additional tasks due to the absence of pupils/teachers.
• Teachers in primary schools more frequently point out that addressing the concerns or complaints of parents or guardians, maintaining class discipline and adapting classes to pupils with special needs is a significant source of stress.
• Most teachers (67.0%) are concerned by economic uncertainty.
• Teachers find their social status in the Republic of Croatia extremely unfavourable.
• Almost all (95.8%) state that politicians do not value their views, and that they cannot influence education policy (88.8%).
• A student perspective study with 8,419 secondary school final-year students shows that 60.5% of pupils agree with the claim that “Teachers are not enough valued in Croatia”. The highest level of agreement with the claim is given by the most successful pupils.

The low social status of the teaching profession poses a serious challenge for Croatia, as it will continue to negatively affect those currently working in the education system, but also the attraction of competent young people to work in school.