Why are teachers leaving the profession? And what must we do about it?
Splashed across the media, especially since the pandemic, is a public dialogue about teacher shortages and why teachers are leaving the profession.
All around the world, in developed countries, there’s discussion about teacher burnout; long hours for too little pay. Young people, who idealistically want to become teachers, sometimes reconsider when they realise how emotionally demanding a role it is, and that the pay maxes out after about 7–10 years. Many teachers in NSW believe the exodus is the result of public scrutiny, pressure to create unrealistic student outcomes, demands of parents and community, and continuously hearing Government policymakers talk about getting “better teachers” and “better results” – all these things put a dampener on teachers’ enthusiasm for the profession.
The truth is, teachers were leaving the profession prior to the pandemic, like a slow leak in a dam. Now, post-pandemic, that slow leak has become more like a flood.
The shortage impacting our schools
NSW public, independent, and Catholic schools are currently experiencing the worst shortage of teachers in the state’s history, with more than 4000 teaching positions unfilled. In fact, some of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) statistics are showing that possibly up to 50 percent of teachers are thinking of leaving the profession in the next few years. This shortage of teachers creates greater pressure on the remaining teachers, contributing to their burnout. Thus, a vicious cycle ensues.
Over the next three years, approximately 50,000 teachers across Australia are expected to leave the profession, inclusive of 5000 teachers between the ages of 25 and 29. That is a significant proportion of the total teaching workforce of just over 300,000 in Australia. The demand for High School teachers is expected to outstrip the graduates by nearly 4000.
A recent survey of tens of thousands of teachers across Australia (Hays Salary Guide FY23/24n for 2022 and 2023 YTD) showed 32 percent of teachers indicated that they intend to remain with their current employer for the next year, 45 percent said maybe they will and maybe they won’t, and 23 percent indicated that they do not intend to remain with their current employer. This reflects a startling reality.
Teacher turnover
Teacher turnover in NSW independent schools in our region has averaged between 18 and 22 percent (AISNSW urban independent schools), with Moriah sitting beneath that statistic. The top factors that attributed to teacher turnover across NSW are the rising cost of living, poor management style, workplace culture and staff morale, and a lack of promotional opportunities. The top priorities for teachers across Australia are flexible work, pay rises, and learning and development opportunities.
What is the teacher reality at Moriah?
At Moriah, we are facing an ageing workforce. Over the last year, the average age in the Moriah workforce has gone up from 44 to 46 years old. However, according to school-wide staff surveys conducted last year across all five categories of Moriah staff members (Leadership, High School, Primary School, Early Learning, and Non-Teaching staff), our staff morale is high. The surveys indicated ‘high’ to ‘extremely high’ satisfaction levels with leadership and management and workplace culture at Moriah. However, our surveys also indicated that staff wellbeing is below the average level reported in NSW schools. Our staff members attributed lowered levels of wellbeing to excessive stress, with 77 percent stating that administrative matters are causing moderate to significant stress, 69 percent pointing to work and community expectations, and 62 percent highlighting parent contact, access and response, as moderate to significant stressors.
The Federal Government’s ‘solutions’
The Federal Government decided to resolve the workforce shortage by funding more places for teachers in universities, funding transition programs from other professions into teaching, and funding a small number of Teacher Scholarships. This initiative was launched over the last couple of years, and it hasn’t seemed to make a significant impact yet. They also announced that they are trying to cram a two-year Educational Master’s program, for those with a relevant undergraduate degree, into one year to try to sweeten the deal. They also intend to lower the ATAR required to enter teaching, and they are trying to lure international teachers into Australia (although I can attest firsthand that it is still very difficult to bring in qualified international teachers, even though certain areas are identified as skills shortage areas).
In truth, the Federal Government is not dealing with the core issue. Trying to cram a two-year Masters into one is not going to create teachers that are better trained. Trying to lower the entry mark isn’t going to raise the calibre of teachers, and relying on international markets, whom themselves are experiencing teacher shortages, seems to be an irresponsible way of resolving the problem.
We need to ask ourselves, “Why is there a teacher shortage and how can we truly fix the problem?”
In essence, teachers nationwide are telling us there is a gap between what they are paid and what they’re expected to do. There is a rise in enrolments, particularly across the independent sector. With an ageing workforce and a drop in the number of students studying to become teachers, this crisis is only going to get worse. The solution must provide teachers with proper training to do the classroom work effectively so that students are more engaged, thereby reducing behavioural and wellbeing issues. Additionally, teachers’ salaries must be increased, their workloads reduced (particularly administrative duties, so they can focus on teaching), and they should be given more time to plan and to learn. Fast-tracking people into a flawed system is not the answer.
The reality is that teacher salaries start close to the $80,000 mark which is actually okay for starting out in a profession, and it can progress well for the next few years, but then after about 7–10 years, it does max out, and that’s when teachers feel that they are not sufficiently remunerated.
Real solutions
There are close to 100,000 want-to-be, possible-teachers already in the Australian workforce and market. They are ideal candidates to become teachers. But who and where are they? They are working in our classrooms and schools as teachers’ aides and assistants, paraprofessionals. Many of them have an aspiration to want to become educators, but they can’t for multiple reasons:
- They need to work to support themselves and their families, precluding study.
- They can’t necessarily afford the degree or the debt that they will incur by receiving HECS.
A simple solution, as is done in many other countries, is to create Teacher Apprenticeship Degrees for Teachers’ aides and assistants who are already working in schools. In conjunction with their work, their paid employment, they receive a free teaching degree and guaranteed employment. In other words, they work and get paid whilst they earn a university degree and become qualified teachers. Obviously, there must be some entry requirements and there should be a commitment, i.e. to work for the entire three or four-year duration of the degree, and to commit to teach for a certain amount of time afterwards. But the fact that there is a job waiting for them, in the very school and community in which they already live and work, is a tremendous incentive. These people have already seen the impact that great teachers have on kids. What an extraordinary goldmine of potential talent is lying dormant, right there under our noses for us to create the next wave of dedicated teachers.
Pay for excellence
In addition, as has been flagged by the previous Liberal Government, and discussed by the current Labour Government, teachers who achieve the highest level of proficiency and expertise need to be able to break through the current imposed wage threshold of approximately $120,000, without necessarily taking on significant leadership roles and administrative burdens. This would enable teachers to attain expertise and become masters of the profession, and remain in the classroom, while being competitively remunerated. This additional pay can’t only be doled out, as has been proposed, to teachers in Government schools, as it would put undue strain on non-Government schools to increase their already too-high school fees. Bear in mind that if all children in NSW non-Government and Catholic schools would need to be educated in the Government system, it would cost the NSW and Federal Government nearly $12 billion extra per annum. Thus, it is extremely cost effective for them to strengthen the non-Government and Catholic school system. Anyways, improving our teachers’ situation improves education and will, in turn, improve our market and economy for the medium and longer term, securing a better future for Australia.
In summary
Teachers are feeling burnt out, underappreciated, and undervalued. With the cost of living rising, many teachers are wondering about their future.
One simple solution could be to tap into the Teacher’s Aide, Teacher Assistant, paraprofessional market of people already within schools and enable them to receive paid Apprenticeship Degrees with guaranteed employment at the end. As well, teachers at the upper end of experience and expertise, who achieve the highest level of accreditation, in whichever system they find themselves, after about 10 years or so, should be able to receive universal extra remuneration which must be Government-funded and cannot come from tuition fees in the independent or Catholic systems.
The ‘myth’ of teacher shortages
There are counterarguments to the notion of teacher shortages. Julie Hare, Editor of The Australian Financial Review Education, claims that there is no real teacher shortage in Australia and in NSW, in her article dated 20 February 2023. In her article, she attributes the perceived shortage to the lower teacher-student ratio that she found in 2021 compared to the early 2000s. She says the teacher-student ratio went from 14.2 to 13.4 in a 15–20-year period. Julie further claims that teacher pay is often raised as a leading cause of people not entering the profession, however, she asserts, “contrary to popular belief, Australian teachers are among the best paid in the world. They are ranked 5th for highest paid in the OECD, after Luxembourg, Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands.”
What Julie has omitted to tell you is that education has evolved, thank G-d, over the last couple of decades, to the point where we are able to target individual students and their growth, rather than teaching to somewhere in the middle and hoping those that struggle catch up and those that need extension won’t get too bored. We are now able to teach four or five different mini-classes, or even more, within one classroom, due to better qualified teachers and a minor teacher-student ratio decrease so that there are more teachers for every student. The quality and opportunities for our children have thus improved.
The second issue that Julie omitted to mention, is that the bulk of teachers in Australia live in dense population centres, the main Australian cities, and they are from some of the most expensive cities in the world.
So yes, teachers in Australia might be paid quite well when you compare them to some of the OECD countries, however, teachers are finding that the cost of living in Australia prohibits them from being able to continue within the profession. So, it is incumbent upon us to continue as a community and as a country to do something about the teacher shortage.
In my humble opinion, in a world in which more and more people are seeking purpose in their lives and are being driven by making a real difference, there could be no greater calling than to be an educator. Though it may sound cliché, teachers truly have the power to “build a better tomorrow.”
About the Author
Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler is the College Principal at Moriah College in Queens Park, NSW.
moriahcollegeblog.com 