A Substitute Teacher’s Death from Overwork Reveals Structural Problems in the Education System

On November 24, 2020, a substitute music teacher at Liu-Chiu Junior High School in Pingtung County died suddenly in her dormitory. At the time of the incident, only limited information was made public. The school failed to fully disclose her actual working conditions, and the competent authorities had not grasped the situation either. As a result, the cause of death was initially classified as a “personal health issue.”

However, through the persistent efforts of the bereaved family, the case was eventually brought back into institutional review. In 2024, the Kaohsiung High Administrative Court ruled that the working hours of the substitute teacher met the criteria for death due to overwork and ordered the Bureau of Labor Insurance to reexamine its original decision. Subsequently, the Bureau granted occupational accident death benefits. On January 15, 2026, the Control Yuan also issued corrective measures against Liu-Chiu Junior High School and the Bureau of Labor Insurance. This case not only overturned previous determinations, but also exposed the structural risks of overwork that substitute teachers have long been forced to bear within the education system.

Teacher Shortages Forcing Substitute Teachers to Take on Multiple Roles

According to the investigation, in addition to teaching music classes, the substitute teacher also served as a homeroom teacher for ninth-grade students, a weekly campus safety duty supervisor, a teacher for after-school remedial programs and summer remedial programs, and an instructor for the school’s recorder ensemble. She also supported extracurricular programs at nearby elementary schools and was required to intensively increase instructional hours in preparation for the preliminary round of a national music competition. In addition, she was asked to concurrently teach home economics classes and evening continuation school courses.

Because teachers do not clock in or out, their working hours extend far beyond scheduled classroom time and include substantial additional labor. Accounts from students, parents, and colleagues indicate that she was subjected to prolonged working hours over an extended period:

“Every time I arrived at the office a little after 7 a.m., she was already there. She probably arrived at school before 7 a.m. and maintained this routine consistently.”

“To improve students’ academic performance, she stayed at school almost every day to tutor students, often accompanying those who were falling behind until 10 or 11 p.m. When exams were approaching, she also stayed on campus during weekends for after-school tutoring, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.”

“My son would be kept after school for poor grades or unfinished assignments, often past 8 or 9 p.m. In his ninth-grade year, he was kept after school almost every weekday, though occasionally he could go home at 4:30 p.m. The frequency increased before exams.”

“Due to minimum teaching hour requirements, she also taught home economics classes. She was additionally assigned to teach continuation school courses, which ran Monday through Friday for about two hours each day.”

The Kaohsiung High Administrative Court further explicitly noted that the teacher’s average overtime hours in the one to two months prior to the onset of illness exceeded 80 hours, and that this figure represented a “conservative estimate,” with actual working hours likely being even longer. The court therefore determined that her sudden death had an “extremely strong correlation” with long-term overtime work and excessive workload.

The ruling also pointed out that both the school and the Bureau of Labor Insurance calculated working hours solely based on scheduled classes, excluding substantive labor such as lesson preparation, after-school tutoring, competition training, and cross-school support. This resulted in a severe underestimation of her actual working hours. Moreover, no comprehensive assessment was conducted regarding the highly mentally demanding nature of teachers’ work.

The “Exceptional Status” of Substitute Teachers Has Become the Norm

As declining birth rates have led to a reduction in student numbers, many local governments have chosen to freeze permanent teaching positions in order to avoid an excess of tenured teachers in the future, instead relying on substitute teachers to meet actual teaching needs. Combined with teaching hour reductions that release additional class periods, schools’ dependence on substitute teachers has intensified.

Under existing regulations, substitute teachers are, in principle, prohibited from serving as homeroom teachers or holding administrative positions unless approval is granted by the competent authority. However, taking Liu-Chiu Junior High School as an example, from the 2018 to the 2024 academic years, substitute teachers were assigned homeroom or administrative duties every year. This demonstrates that such “exceptions” have long since become a normalized staffing arrangement.

The responses of the competent authorities have largely stopped at structural explanations such as “insufficient manpower” or “difficulty in recruiting staff in remote areas,” without proposing concrete or timely corrective measures. Ultimately, the risks have been concentrated on the most vulnerable group—substitute teachers.

With unstable employment terms and contract renewals heavily dependent on school evaluations, substitute teachers are placed in an extremely disadvantaged position in terms of working-hour recognition, the ability to refuse additional duties, and access to complaint mechanisms. They become the group “least able to say no.” When “doing a little more” becomes an unspoken rule tied to contract renewal, performance evaluations, and workplace relationships, overwork is repackaged as a sense of responsibility.

Schools Should Not Be Blind Spots for Occupational Safety and Health

For a long time, the notion that “schools are not factories” has caused occupational safety and health issues on campus to be frequently overlooked. According to the Control Yuan’s investigation, although substitute teachers are not covered by the Labor Standards Act, they are still protected under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Schools therefore have a legal obligation to prevent excessive working hours, night work, and unlawful mental harm.

Yet it was only after this tragic case occurred and the Control Yuan intervened that these violations were brought to light. This reveals that the risk of overwork within schools has long gone unnoticed by the institutional system.

Substitute teachers have long become essential workers who sustain the daily operation of schools and should not be treated as disposable labor within the education system. The competent authorities must therefore confront this issue directly by clearly defining working-hour boundaries and rationally allocating human resources. Otherwise, tragedies caused by structural overwork will continue to be repeated.