Australia is currently grappling with a severe teacher shortage, a crisis that has been brewing for over a decade.
New research by Mark McCrindle, Social researcher and the Principal at McCrindle Research, has revealed that more than half of educators are considering leaving the profession.
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The situation is also exacerbated by the ageing demographic of teachers, with 20 per cent of the workforce set to retire in the next ten years.
On today’s The Briefing, we explore why this is happening and what’s being done to attract more people to study teaching.
Mr McCrindle said the decline in enrollments for teaching degrees was almost 20 per cent compared to the previous year.
Findings highlighted the mounting pressures faced by educators, including heavy workloads, challenging student and parent behaviour, and long hours.
“There’s been a high proportion of teachers, in fact, almost seven in 10, saying that they’ve considered leaving the profession in the last two years,” he said.
Interestingly, those who have not contemplated leaving the profession are 2.1 times more likely to continue teaching due to “the sense of purpose” in their work.
“The profession of teaching always paid a little less than what they might have been getting in the big end of town in a corporate (company),” he added.
The study also found that 50 per cent of teachers had sufficient time to prepare for effective teaching.
The Education Union has warned that if current trends persist, public education in Australia could be under threat.
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