Around 80% of teachers say they are spending more time on work-related duties in their free hours since making the switch to online learning, according to a survey published by the Malta Union of Teachers.

On March 13, schools shut down to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, with teachers having to swiftly transition all their lessons and material to the online sphere.

The MUT survey, which garnered 692 respondents and was carried out between the last week of April and the first week of May, found that 79% of teachers were spending more time than ever before on work duties outside of working hours.

In terms of work-life balance, 46% of respondents said they felt it had affected their lives negatively while 47% said they found the positive and negative elements of working from home balanced each other out.

The vast majority of teachers found the lines between working time and after-school hours to be murky, with 83% saying they had received communication in the evenings, weekends or holidays from students and 58% saying they also heard from parents.

The vast majority of teachers found the lines between working time and after-school hours to be murky

Respondents said they replied to students after hours 64% of the time, while the majority, 57%, said they did not reply to parents in the evening or on weekends. Educators said that not replying to their students ran the risk of work piling up, while others noted that it would be impossible to balance teaching duties with home duties if they stuck to school working hours alone.

Some also feared that a delayed reply could serve to put off students with an already waning interest in their lessons.

On the other hand, teachers seemed more eager to put their foot down with parents, saying that maintaining their privacy and family time was important: they were reluctant to give parents the impression that educators are on hand 24/7.

Confirming that the line between working hours and free time has all but been shattered, 71% of educators said they received correspondence from management outside of working hours, with 51% saying they responded to their superiors in the evening or weekends.

Most cited the urgency of the reply as the reason, while others expressed the need for guidance or support when dealing with a particular student or parent.

A majority of educators found that communicating with school management was not strictly a requirement.

However, those that did, said that it would be frowned upon to ignore such communication and that there was an expectation among management that educators should be available round the clock since they are working from home.