Exploring mental health challenges encountered by educators in the South Asian countries—a qualitative survey

Introduction Mental health challenges are a growing concern across academia, significantly impacting teachers’ well-being and, ultimately, the quality of education provided to students. This study aims to understand mental health challenges encountered by teachers in their workplace and employs an online qualitative survey where online interviews with three semi-structured questions with large-scale data set of 700 teachers conducted to collect data. Methods Participants were school teachers, selected via quota sampling from seven South Asian countries (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Nepal) through a virtual global teaching platform. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis, beginning with open coding to facilitate initial conceptualisation. This was followed by axial coding, in which the research team organised the primary codes into coherent sub-themes. To ensure investigator triangulation and mitigate individual biases, multiple experts collaborated during the analysis to enhance the analytical rigour of the final themes. Results Despite a diversity of contexts worldwide, the findings confirm that the challenges faced by teachers in all seven developing countries share commonalities: burnout and excessive workload, lack of communication and exclusion from decision making, exploitation, professional jealousy and toxic work place. The barriers to discussing mental health issues include a culture that discourages sharing, a lack of awareness, and the unavailability of mental health services in the workplace. To cope, teachers often rely on sharing their feelings with friends and family, practicing meditation, engaging in recreational activities, improving communication, and participating in community engagement. Discussion It is recommended to introduce mental health policies in the workplace parallel with empowering teachers to enhance their well-being through self-empowerment courses and counseling. Further, there is a dire need to establish a mental health services unit for teachers.