School staff miss more than 3,500 work days due to mental ill health

Absences up by more than 1,000 days

Absences due to mental ill health accounted for 3501.5 work days for teachers, and school staff, in the last academic year.

The figures have been released by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture in response to a Freedom of Information Request from Manx Radio.

The 2020-2021 academic year saw a jump in mental health related absences of roughly a thousand days.

By comparison in the year starting September 2018, 2,313 days were lost and 2499.5 across 2019-2020.

Meanwhile 1,610 mental health related absences have been recorded between last September and the end of December 2021.

The data comes from all Island primary and secondary schools, not including UCM, and the data for the current academic year doesn't include school catering staff.