Survey on Environmental, Ergonomic and Occupational Health Hazards and Safety of Teachers and Researchers in Academic Institutions in Ebonyi State

Work-related ailments that emanate from environment, ergonomics and occupational hazards among workers especially teachers and researchers in our academic institutions in Nigeria, Ebonyi state example, has been neglected and this is posing certain health impacts on the teachers and researchers in the teaching profession. In view of this problem, the researchers conducted a survey on ergonomics and occupational health hazards and safety of teachers and researchers in our academic institutions in Ebonyi state using three education zones as case study to find out the gravity of the problem. Questionnaires containing forty-three (43) items with contingencies and matrix questions under the three parts of which the questions made up of thirteen open ended type and 30 close-ended types were used to collect the data for the study. The twelve schools from the tertiary, secondary and basic levels were selected using convenient sampling and respondents from three levels were also selected using simple random sampling. Two hundred (200) respondents were sampled and statistical tool used to analyze data collected was the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16 using frequencies, table and Chi-squares to establish relationships between some test items. The recovery rate of questionnaires was 75%. The results reveal that 88% of the teachers and researchers are trained with diploma, degree and masters in the respective field of education and have taught for more than two years. However, 98% of the teachers and researchers suffer from certain work-related ailments in the school arising from compounding ergonomics (furniture they use), teaching aids, occupational safety, physical environment and social environment. As many as 62% of the teachers and researchers have been on health issues. Up to 76% of the teachers and researchers attributed their health problems to the furniture they use in their school and 86% of the teachers and researchers generally suffer from work-related stress as a result of workload. Up to 82% of the teachers and researcher’s schools do not have fire extinguishers in place and finally 89% of them lacked training in the operation of the fire-fighting devices. From the findings, it is recommended that teaching profession is associated with some health problems so government, policy makers, ergonomist and all stakeholders in education should inculcate the health and safety of teachers and researchers into the occupational health and safety management standards of the country Nigeria and Ebonyi state in particular.

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