Almost one in two Australian school staff – 49 per cent – are burnt out. Workforce experts warn that Australia's teacher shortage has become a retention problem, not a recruitment one.
James Lister, national head of curriculum Australia at Twinkl and a former Head Teacher now undertaking a Doctorate in Education on teacher retention in the first five years of the profession, said the pressure on staff has become structural rather than incidental.
"It's becoming a real sustainability issue for teachers," Lister said. "They just are under so much pressure and weight of administration that it's tough for them at the moment."
A workload crisis hiding behind the averages
The data found the top national stressors were long working hours and excessive workload, administrative tasks, and catering for complex student needs, each cited by 51 per cent of respondents, followed by managing challenging behaviour at 46 per cent.
But the national figures conceal sharp disparities: below-average ICSEA secondary schools reported just 27 per cent high morale against a national average of 50 per cent, while specialist schools recorded occupational violence as a stressor for 34 per cent of staff – more than three times the national rate.
"The national average is a mathematical place," said report author Adrienne Hornby, education consultant and a former teacher.
Lister pointed to similar figures from his own research into curriculum and workload data. Citing the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), he said teachers are now working a median of roughly 50 hours a week during term time, before holiday hours are counted.
He also referenced the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), whose latest workforce report found one in five teachers, regardless of experience, intend to leave the profession within five years – down from earlier estimates of up to two in five beginning teachers within their first five years, but still, he said, a sign the underlying pressure has not eased.
"We simply can't recruit our way out of this problem," Lister said. "I think it really is a retention problem, not a recruitment problem."
Why unaddressed burnout has lasting consequences
Left unaddressed, both Hornby's data and Lister's frontline experience point to compounding costs: rising attrition among early-career teachers, growing pressure on already-stretched specialist and low-ICSEA schools, and what Hornby's report terms "moral injury" – distress caused by being unable to act on one's own professional values, which she says is now pushing educators toward the exit as much as exhaustion is.
Lister linked this directly to inclusion policy. He cited ACARA figures showing the proportion of students requiring a disability adjustment rose from 18 per cent in 2015 to 27 per cent in 2025, without a matching increase in specialist staffing or support. "Inclusion has to mean access to the right support, not simply placement in the same room," he said.
He also raised student and parent behaviour as a driver of exits, citing data attributing 48 per cent of teacher departures to this factor, and said psychosocial risk in schools "has to be treated with the same seriousness as physical safety," reflecting the psychosocial hazards and change management obligations now facing employers more broadly under work health and safety law.
What school leaders can do now
Both sources pointed away from generic wellbeing programs and toward structural change. Hornby's report was blunt on this point: "Focusing on personal strategies while the workplace and systemic psychosocial hazards go unaddressed is like throwing a lit match into a puddle of fuel."
Lister set out practical steps for school leaders: audit and simplify workload before adding new initiatives, protect early-career teachers with structured induction and realistic expectations, strengthen and publicise behaviour policies so expectations are clear to staff, students and parents, build role clarity so fewer competing priorities land on teachers at once, and act visibly on staff feedback. This mirrors the approach outlined for tackling burnout tied to accepting extra workload across other high-pressure sectors.
"Retention really begins long before a staff member has written that resignation letter," Lister said. On pay, he noted New South Wales teachers received a 13 per cent increase in recent years, with Victoria now in similar discussions – a sign, he said, that compensation is moving, even as workload design lags behind.
For HR and school leaders navigating comparable psychosocial risk management and workplace safety obligations, the message from both the data and the profession is consistent: without action on workload design, not just wellbeing add-ons, the sustainability problem in Australian schools will keep deepening.