I am an Ontario educator with a public school board and as I return to work, part of me is dreading it. Many of my teacher friends are also partly dreading the start of the new school year, not because their beach visits are coming to an end, but because they remember how mentally exhausted and burnt out they were in the final days of June.
Teachers across the province are feeling the emotional strain of an overburdened education system that has been further crumbling over the last five years. A 2024 study reported that 28.5 per cent of Ontario teachers have experienced high burnout, and 50 per cent of Ontario teachers have suffered moderate or emotional exhaustion.