Most literature reports on voice problems in primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, and sometimes even university lecturers as one group despite the fact that their working conditions are different. Primary school teaching puts much greater vocal demands on teachers than secondary school teaching. The main difference is in the duration of continuous voice use and opportunity for vocal rest. Primary school teachers teach for 5–6 hours continuously with little or no opportunity for vocal rest. Added to this are 37 hours of playground duty per year.
This contrasts with the working day of secondary school teachers who teach for 45 minute periods, sometimes 90 minutes as a double period. These periods of teaching are interspersed with periods of vocal rest of 45 minutes or longer. This difference has been recognized by Sala et al,30 who suggested that vocal load for primary and preschool teachers is higher than for secondary teachers. Many studies have not taken this important difference into account and have reported on primary and secondary school teachers and sometimes university lecturers as one group in the same study.20 The first study to report on voice problems in primary school teachers as a single group was published in 2008.20
Since then, many studies on voice problems in primary school teachers as a single group have appeared in the literature.17, 23, 28, 31 Given the above differences in working conditions, it is the opinion of this author, that studies should separate primary and secondary school teachers into two distinct groups.