How many NSW teachers have voluntarily quit

Thousands of teachers have voluntarily cancelled their accreditation in the last year, with warnings the pressure they face is “becoming untenable”.

Close to 10,000 teachers across NSW have left the profession in the past seven years, with a massive 3,355 voluntarily cancelling their accreditation with the NSW Education Standards Authority in the last year alone.

New figures, released to the NSW Upper House by Education Minister Sarah Mitchell following requests from the opposition, revealed 9759 teachers voluntarily cancelled their teaching accreditation since 2015.

NSW Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Meanwhile, 12 teachers had their accreditation revoked by the department from misconduct in the 2020/21 financial year.

A further 29 teachers were suspended for misconduct in the last financial year.

Shadow Education spokeswoman and deputy opposition leader Prue Car said the pressure teachers face is “becoming untenable”.

“It isn’t just remote learning and the pandemic, there is too much pressure, they aren't paid enough and the government won’t listen to their cries for support,” she said.

There are fears over the number of teachers leaving. Generic school image, Picture: iStock

“In December we saw thousands strike for the first time in a decade, and many were young and fed up with not being valued for a job so critical to our society.

“We need the very best teachers to support our children, but thousands are leaving the profession every year.”

Deputy opposition leader Prue Car. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Ms Car said she feared the Education Department would face teacher shortages “in the thousands”.

“The pandemic has been a really stressful time for teachers, who are the coalface of constant uncertainty,” she said.

“There is so much pressure on these teachers and they are not being listened to.

“We have seen, during learning from home, just how much teachers actually do to support our children — the only ones that don’t see their value are the government.”

An Education Department spokeswoman told NewsLocal there were a number of reasons teachers cancel accreditation “including retirement”.

“The option to voluntarily cancel accreditation was created in 2015, to simplify the process of retiring from the profession,” she said.

“The data is not a cause for concern, there are over 165,000 registered teachers in NSW working in both the public and independent sector.

“On average we are seeing around one per cent of this number cancel their accreditation for retirement or other reasons annually since 2015, this is normal and healthy for a system of NSW’s size.”