Teaching or Paper-Pushing? The Admin Avalanche Teachers Face

Teaching was never supposed to be about a natural love of paperwork. It was supposed to be about sparking ideas, building confidence, and helping students see the world differently. But somewhere along the line, the balance tipped. Now, instead of pouring our energy into the classroom, teachers are drowning in an endless sea of admin. Lesson plans, schemes of work, risk assessments, behaviour logs, emails, data trackers, intervention forms, parent updates, CPD records, targets, evidence folders — you name it, there’s a spreadsheet or form waiting to swallow up another hour of your life. And that’s before you even touch the marking pile. It’s a pressure cooker. You finish a full day of teaching (a performance in itself — ask anyone who’s stood in front of thirty teenagers on a Friday afternoon) and instead of a break, you’re staring down admin tasks that could fill another shift. And the worst part? Most of it feels like it’s for show. Tick-box exercises that satisfy accountability systems but do very little to support learners. I’ve felt this in every role I’ve had. In the prison education system, not only are you managing lesson prep and admin, but you’re also juggling security forms, incident reports, and endless paperwork that has nothing to do with pedagogy and everything to do with protocol. Of course, safety matters. Accountability matters. But when admin starts eating into the energy you should be giving to your learners, something’s broken. Because here’s the truth: teaching is a human job. It’s about connection, creativity, and adaptability. None of that can be captured in a form field. The best learning moments — the spark when a student finally gets it, the discussion that takes the class off-script but deeper into the topic, the creative risk that pays off — those don’t live in a spreadsheet. They live in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying admin should disappear completely. We need systems, we need records, we need accountability. But how many ways and platforms are they going to get us to do the same repetitive tasks on? The balance is off. Teachers are being buried under the weight of admin to the point where the joy of teaching gets crushed. And when that joy goes, the quality of education goes with it. Imagine if teachers were trusted more. Imagine if admin was streamlined, cut back to what makes a difference for learners, and we were free to give our best energy to teaching. Imagine if the profession valued creativity and connection as much as it does data entry. Because at the end of the day, students won’t remember the beautifully formatted lesson plan you uploaded to the system. They’ll remember how you made them feel, the skills you helped them grow, and the confidence you sparked. And no spreadsheet in the world can measure that.