Skyrocketing teacher resignations in WA

Unions have blamed an exodus of WA teachers on large class sizes and increased workloads.

West Australian education minister Tony Buti.

Western Australia is staring down the barrel of an unprecedented teacher shortage amid what the state’s Education Minister says is a nationwide challenge for schools.

WA schoolteachers have reported surging levels of stress and anxiety about their jobs, a survey provided to The Australian by the State School Teachers Union of WA shows, with the nation’s largest class sizes and increasing workload pressure pushing increasing numbers of teachers out of the profession.

Data tabled in the WA parliament shows the number of teachers resigning increased substantially in recent years, from just over 600 in 2020 to more than 1200 last year. WA is on track to lose another 1500 teachers to resignation this year.

SSTUWA president Matt Jarman told The Australian the education system would likely be thousands of teachers short by the start of the next school year.

“We need a minimum of 1000 secondary teachers and 1500 or thereabouts primary. For our state, that’s unprecedented,” Mr Jarman said.

“In our state we’ve got the ­biggest class sizes in the country. We’ve got a mad approach with the individual education planning (and) professional learning demands on teachers. It’s all just wrapped up and added to workload.”

The union’s survey suggests the resignation figures may continue to worsen. It found that 86 per cent of teachers, 63 per cent of principals and 73.5 per cent of deputies and heads of department had considered leaving the profession in the past four years.

WA has class sizes of up to 32 students in each class from years 4 to 10. Most other large states have size limits of 24 to 26 students.

Some 70 per cent of principals said there were teacher shortages at their school, which had in turn hurt staff morale and increased pressure on the remaining staff.

Mr Jarman said those leaving teaching were typically in the 55 years-plus age bracket, but the union was increasingly seeing 45 to 55-year-olds also exiting the profession.

He added that the exodus had left schools increasingly reliant on undergraduate teachers.

Mr Jarman said the number of people working in schools under “limited authority to teach” ­registrations had “skyrocketed” in WA.

“It means we’ve got under­qualified people running classrooms,” he said.

The survey found that more than half of all principals said they were using teachers who were not fully qualified for their roles.

WA Education Minister Tony Buti said in a statement the increase in teacher resignations was a problem across the country.

“This is in part due to the result of a strong labour market and teachers reconsidering their career choice following the impact of Covid-19,” he said.

“I am working with other education ministers on a National Teacher Workforce Action Plan to address this issue.”

He said the national plan was designed to increase the number of people choosing to become teachers and ensure existing teachers remained in the profession.

WA used to have the highest-paid teachers in Australia, but salaries have slipped below some other states in recent years.

NSW earlier this month announced a 12 per cent pay rise for starting teacher salaries as part of an increase to make the profession more attractive, while Victoria earlier this month announced plans to subsidise the degrees and living costs of teaching students.

WA’s opposition early childhood education spokeswoman, Donna Faragher, said the rising number of teacher resignations was alarming.

“If these figures are not a wake-up call for the Cook Labor government to take immediate action to support principals, teachers and school staff, I do not know what is,” she said.