Disillusioned former educator lashes out at the ‘incompetent’ school leaders and bureaucrats making teachers’ lives hell

In a spectacular diatribe, a former teacher lashes education leaders and their “bureaucratic ballet performed by people more interested in climbing ladders than lifting children”.

A former teacher has shared some scathing thoughts about the bureaucrats running the Queensland education system. This piece, which was edited for length, is reproduced here with permission.

A system that lacks integrity

I left the department this year to pursue other opportunities. I love teaching but am beyond disillusioned with the inner-workings of Education Queensland and what I see as a stark lack of integrity and a flawed system of promotion and movement in schools that will never be reformed and only seems to be getting worse.

I was a science teacher for the majority of my career but spent some time as head of department and later as a deputy. The work can be rewarding, but the circle-jerk nature of school administration and refusal to tackle real problems (and being told to stand the heck down if you insist on trying) led me to transition back to the classroom.

I did not want to exist in a role wherein I tried an endless stream of newfangled ideas for five minutes only to pad my, or someone else’s, resume, at the expense of work that could and should have bettered school communities.

My career aspiration was to find a place where I could spend 10 or so years of my life fully involved in contributing to the community, but EQ (Education Queensland) does not really seem to work that way.

“The most compliant are rewarded; the most creative are sidelined. Those who question, who innovate, who care about long-term change, who attempt to take action to benefit students and community quickly learn that their curiosity is career suicide.”

Incompetence of leadership

After years inside the system, I have finally resigned myself to the simple truth: education in Queensland will never be fixed until we confront the incompetence of leadership within our own schools.

Teachers and the state government can blame the ever-faithful adage of behaviour, underfunding, and burnout all they like (and yes, those are real and pressing problems), but none will ever be solved while our schools are run by people who have mistaken ambition for leadership.

What passes for management in Queensland schools is not meritocratic stewardship of a vital public institution; it is an elaborate theatre of compliance, a bureaucratic ballet performed by people more interested in climbing ladders than lifting children.

EQ would insist that selection processes are rigorous and merit based. In practice, this is a facade that is growing ever more deceptive. The so-called “merit system” is dressed up in the language of equity but remains the epitome of cronyism.

School-based appointments in EQ (I cannot speak to appointments at the level of region, I do not have experience in the space) are not about competence, they are about comfort.

They are less about who can lead, and more who can be relied upon not to challenge the prevailing order, who can be relied upon to not rock the boat of complacency, who can be relied upon not to question an institution that repels innovation and rewards mindless compliance to the outdated system.

The compliant are rewarded

What the department calls “leadership potential” is too often code for obedience. The most compliant are rewarded; the most creative are sidelined. Those who question, who innovate, who care about long-term change, who attempt to take action to benefit students and community quickly learn that their curiosity is career suicide.

The system does not elevate people who make things better, it elevates people who make things easier by committing to the continuation of the structure. The middle-management layer of EQ: Principals, ARDs, deputies, some HoDs (the ones that are in it for their career and not the faculty) has become a revolving door of careerists.

They speak fluent edupolicystrategybullsh*t and always seem to be “acting” in some position above their substantive level. Their leadership style is dictated by the length of their acting term. They do not plant seeds because they will be gone before anything grows.

They feel no obligation to staff culture or the wider community. They do not fight for reform because it could, God forbid, damage relationships or destabilise the data they so desperately need to validate the short-term, photogenic initiative they spent 30 minutes boring us with in a staff meeting to pad their resume.

The culture of temporary erodes any sense of belonging or accountability.

The Peter Principle

When everyone is “acting” (or substantive but desperate to climb) no one truly owns the problems. When leadership is transient, staff morale becomes collateral damage. Leaders in my own school that have just arrived, or are desperate to leave, hide behind rhetoric about avoiding stagnation, but in practice all they avoid is scrutiny.

By the time their sh*t decisions begin to unravel, they have already been promoted somewhere else. They have glowing references and a new title, but all they really left behind were big stinking turds and school staff desperate to be led by somebody with integrity and a bit of staying power.

You have probably all heard of the Peter Principle, that idea that people are promoted to their level of incompetence. Education Queensland is living proof.

Our schools are filled with talented, compassionate teachers who are quietly despairing. They aren’t lazy. They aren’t entitled. They’re disillusioned. Worn down by leaders who preach resilience while practising cowardice.

Principals and deputies spend more time curating their image than addressing the real issues in their schools and communities. They avoid difficult conversations, not because they don’t see the problems, but because they might jeopardise their own advancement. And so, the cycle continues: short-term thinking, superficial fixes, and a desperate clinging to stability that has long since become stagnation.

Leaders have forgotten why they are there

The union will blame funding, or the EBA process, or classroom behaviour, anything but the truth that everyone inside schools already knows. Queensland’s education crisis is not primarily about pay packets. It’s about integrity and the lack of it in leadership.

We can’t recruit and retain great teachers if the people leading them are hollowing out the profession from within.

The state government should hang its head in shame, not merely for dragging its feet in EBA negotiations, but for allowing a culture of careerism and cowardice to fester unchecked in our schools. It’s time to call a spade a spade: our education system isn’t failing because of kids, or parents, or teachers. It’s failing because too many of the people running it have forgotten why they’re there.

Until we confront that, no pay rise, workload reform, or policy overhaul will make a difference. Leadership, true leadership, is about courage, humility, and service. And right now, in too many Queensland schools, those qualities are nowhere to be found.

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Originally published as Disillusioned former educator lashes out at the ‘incompetent’ school leaders and bureaucrats making teachers’ lives hell