Why Australian teachers are quitting the school system

Australia is facing an education crisis with teachers leaving the school system in droves. Experienced educators have revealed in open letters what finally forced them to quit the career they had once dreamed of. Read what they said here.

Australian teachers are leaving the profession in droves with concerns shiny new incentives being doled out by state premiers were attracting new graduates but failing to address the root of the education crisis — teachers quitting.

It comes as experts call for state and federal governments to prioritise housing for teachers to stop the rapidly growing drip of teachers exiting the industry.

Education Department data from across Australia painted a stark picture of the country’s education system — with teacher resignations sharply rising from 2020 to 2023.

In NSW, teacher resignations more than doubled from 929 in 2020 to 2050 in 2023.

It was a similar story in Queensland where 1684 teachers quit in 2020 but in 2023, the number rose to 2607 teachers.

Award-winning educator Peita Mages has written an open letter revealing why she quit her public school teaching position. Read it below. Picture: Kirsten Cunningham

For Victorians, total government teaching staff exits sat at 1193 in 2020 and in 2022 the state government reported 1626 primary and 1651 secondary staff left.

In South Australia data was only provided for the last two financial years where resignations rose from 139 to 266 while in Western Australia the number of teachers who quit more than doubled from 604 to 1263 between 2020 and 2023.

This newspaper spoke to four former teachers who have left the industry on what made them quit.

They shared disturbing stories of increasing admin workload, abuse from parents and behaviour issues from parents.

“If you walk into a shop and abuse the person behind the counter, that would not be accepted. But with teaching it’s a case of ‘we can treat you the way we want to’,” one teacher said.

Another added: “The ever increasing workload, particularly what I considered the mindless and unworthwhile paperwork required by NESA, demoralised me to the extent that I needed to leave the profession.”

Experts have said governments must urgently address the teacher shortage in Australia.

UNSW education expert Professor Scott Eacott said governments across Australia cannot ignore the role of housing on the shortage of teachers.

Mr Eacott said school working conditions remained the largest issue for teacher unhappiness but “outside of school factors” like housing and transportation costs play a major role.

“The further you live away, the more transportation costs you pay. If you travel an hour each way you are tired, you are stressed,” he said.

“Unless something miraculous happens to the housing market, salaries will never keep up with the housing costs.”

Mr Eacott said shared-equity housing schemes did not work for teachers who often earned more than the cut-off to qualify but not enough to be able to purchase or rent in areas close to their schools.

Former English teacher Peita Mages left the school system to start her own tutoring business. Picture: Kirsten Cunningham

He called on all levels of government to look at teacher housing as crucial “public infrastructure’.

“If you look overseas, there are ways in which different places are grappling with. California has a Centre for Cities and Schools at Berkeley (University) and they have been using existing school district assets and repurposing buildings to build teacher villages and essential worker housing,” he said.

“During Covid we loved our essential workers but we pretty quickly forgot about how important they are for the functioning of society at large.”

State governments have rolled out a suite of attractive incentives — including extra cash for regional placements, recruitment bonuses and rental subsidies — to bring more teachers into the industry but working conditions and the cost of living is still seeing major spikes in teachers leaving.

Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said retention was a major problem with many of their members saying they wished to only stay in the career for three to five years.

Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

In their annual survey, the AEU asked members if they wished to permanently leave teaching before retirement — in 2024, 27.1 per cent said year, a jump from 25.8 per cent in 2023.

Another 41 per cent said it was “possible” that they would permanently leave before retirement.

“Teachers are saying with a massive increase in working hours, unsustainable working hours, causing additional stress and pressure,” she said.

“The systemic underfunding has been there for over a decade and you have students with complex needs, behavioural needs (for which) they aren’t getting support for.”

Ms Haythorpe said many teachers could not even afford to rent in the suburbs they wanted to work in.

“Many teachers can’t afford to live in the communities they work in, not just buying a house, renting is completely off the table as well,” she said.

“It’s particularly impacting teachers in inner metropolitan regions so people are having to commute much further.

“Retention is a major issue.”