Near the end of term 1, 31 teachers were out of the classroom because of stress, according to figures tabled in the Legislative Council yesterday.

Nineteen have been away for more than a year, while six have returned to work at reduced hours.

Another six have been away for less than three months.

Failure to cope was the most common reason given, while others cited problems with students or colleagues and psychological trauma.

Australian Education Union president Terry Polglase said stress among teachers was an increasing problem, but said the 31 on stress leave was a ``tiny handful'' out of the 5500 teachers employed in the public school system.

Mr Polglase said more information was needed on where the absences were occurring, the circumstances and age of teachers to establish if more needed to be done to support them. ``They work in stressful environments so it's not expected that those figures would come to the fore, it's the job of the department to minimise that figure,'' Mr Polglase said.

``The health of our teachers is paramount, not only just for that individual teacher, it also can reflect issues for that school.''

Mr Polglase said many issues had contributed to higher stress levels in teachers, including increased workload, job insecurity and an ageing workforce.

``Teachers are also human, they are dealing with their own personal issues,'' he said.