Teacher burnout: long hours, disruptive students, red tape driving one in four to exit

Challenging students, long hours and red tape – here’s why one in four teachers wants to leave the profession. Some are also undertrained.

Nearly half the nation’s maths and foreign language teachers are not qualified to teach their subjects, as the first official data exposes a startling skills gap in the profession.

The first national analysis of the teaching workforce reveals a profession under pressure, with one in four teachers so stressed by workloads and disruptive classrooms that they plan to switch careers.

Most teachers are content with their pay but want better working conditions, the first Australian Teacher Workforce Data report, released yesterday by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), shows.

Teachers work for 150 per cent of their paid hours, on average, with nearly 34 hours a week spent working out of the classroom, in addition to face-to-face teaching.

Nearly nine hours a week is spent planning lessons, with six hours marking student work, five hours counselling or supervising students, two and a half hours communicating with parents and more than five hours dealing with paperwork.

The report, based on state and territory education databases, as well as a survey of nearly 18,000 teachers, shows that one in seven teachers plans to quit in the next 10 years, while one in six will reach retirement age within five years.

A quarter of all teachers plan to quit teaching before retirement age.

Men, who make up just 22 per cent of the teaching workforce, and young teachers are the most likely to want to leave the profession.

Two out of three teachers cited a heavy workload and 61 per cent blamed mental health issues or stress for wanting to quit, while just 29 per cent wanted higher pay.

Challenges with student behaviour are the reason one in four teachers plans to resign.

The report reveals that 28 per cent of teachers in each subject are teaching out-of-field, meaning they did not specialise in the subject at university.

Among teachers of mathematics, the humanities, and foreign languages, between 36 per cent and 46 per cent were teaching out-of-field.

English had the lowest rate of out-of-field teachers, with just 28 per cent of teachers unqualified in the subject.

A quarter of maths teachers said they had “no training’’ in maths, with five per cent learning about pedagogy, or methods of maths teaching, without studying the maths subject content at university.

Nearly one in five science teachers said they had “no training’’ in science at university.

The deputy chair of the data report’s oversight board, Emeritus Professor Bill Louden, said schools were finding it hard to recruit qualified maths teachers.

“People with strong mathematical skills have a lot of career choices, and few of them choose teaching,’’ he said.

Professor Louden said beginner teachers, who earned about $70,000 a year in their first job, were paid “quite well’’ compared to other graduates.

“In the first few years, teachers are paid better than lawyers, but then it flattens off,’’ he said.

“There’s a salary ceiling and the jobs that pay higher take you out of the classroom.’’

Centre for Independent Studies research fellow Glenn Fahey said students needed teachers with a mastery of their subjects.

“It’s a huge problem when it comes to maths,’’ he said.

“Having a qualified maths teacher makes a significant impact on students’ achievement, their engagement and interest in the subject.

“It’s important that we have qualified and confident teachers in the classroom.’’

Mr Fahey said the literacy and numeracy test for new teaching graduates was set at a Year 9 level.

“Australia has seen such a significant decline in maths achievement – at the age of 15, a maths student is 14 months behind in the subject, compared to a student in 2003,’’ he said.

Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said the data showed that teachers are “under significant pressure and overworked’’.

“Particularly during the Covid pandemic, teachers’ workload has escalated, with teachers having to navigate remote teaching requirements along with their regular teaching,’’ she said.

“Teachers are making it very clear that issues around workload and stress are a huge factor when it comes to attracting and retaining teachers’’.

The report shows that male teachers are the most disillusioned, with 30 per planning to change careers.

It states that men are more dissatisfied than women about pay and conditions, and are more affected by “negative community perceptions of the value of teachers’’.

“Men experienced more issues with school culture and as a result were less likely to be enjoying working in schools,’’ the report states.