TEACHERS are under pressure, says President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Karen Best.

She said yesterday during the launch of the union's Blue Ribbon Drive Against Child Abuse at Hillaby/Turner's Hall Primary School, Farmer's, St Thomas, that although teachers were not physically assaulted daily, several of them received a tongue lashing "almost on a daily basis".

"Suppose a parent came in here and is abusive what I would do is talk to that parent, counsel that parent. We don't liketo move towards calling the police because that is what the [Education] Act says and we don't want that. We like to try to solve it and sometimes we can't solve it," said Best.

The BUT president noted there were not enough support mechanisms in place for them and although she supported the need for psychological and or psychiatric counselling, she did not believe attendance should be mandatory.

"Yes, we should have access because there is something known as burn-out and in almost every profession people suffer from burn-out, and we should be able to have a psychologist or psychiatrist, somebody that we can go to and de-stress and tell them what is happening with us; and they can prescribe the appropriate remedies which might be some time off or some medication," Best said.

She noted that the teacher or his/her principal should also recognise he/she is "getting to a point" and take the necessary action.

The principal asserted, however, that teachers were not abusive.

"Teachers don't abuse children. Teachers get angry when they are trying to teach children, when we are trying our best to make sure that they understand or that they do the right thing and then they do something wrong.

"Recently we've been hearing a lot on the call-in programmes about teachers with corporal punishment and it is coming over, especially from one moderator, that teachers go in every morning and just say 'come' and line up a whole class and start lashing them," Best said.

She said they "need the parents to understand that we are here to care for the children".

"I think that we need to let society understand and appreciate the role of the teacher," said the trade union boss who reiterated her call for social workers and/or guidance counsellors in primary schools.

The Blue Ribbon Drive runs until the end of June and is targeting teachers. They are being asked to buy a package with a ribbon and a bookmark for $5 thereby making a statement saying they are definitely against child abuse.