Urgent crisis: Huge workloads forcing teachers to quit


The Australian Education Union’s (AEU) State of our Schools Survey for 2015 surveyed over 2,000 teachers and showed that while job satisfaction was generally high, increased workloads were the biggest factor in the decision of teachers to leave the profession.

The survey found that 70% of female teachers and 55% of male teachers said workloads were the main issue that would lead them to leave teaching.

AEU federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said that a lack of schools’ needs-based funding was putting pressure on teachers.

“This urgent crisis needs to be addressed through funding which takes into account the real needs of students with disability. 

“We know from international comparisons that Australian teachers are working longer hours than the OECD average, and are asked to perform more administrative and nonteaching work,” Haythorpe said in a statement.

Haythorpe said the Federal Government’s 2014 Budget stripped resources from schools by abandoning Gonski agreements, and that today’s budget must deliver an increase in needs-based funding, especially for students with disability.

“What is most concerning is that 73% of teachers surveyed said their workload had increased in the past year,”

Haythorpe said, adding that a predicted spike in school enrolments will only cause more teachers to leave,” Haythorpe said.

“School enrolments are predicted to boom over the next 10 years and we can’t afford to lose good, experienced teachers because they are being overworked and are not getting the support they need.

“This Budget needs to deliver the 5th and 6th years of Gonski funding as well as an immediate increase in funding for disability, through the disability loading which it promised in the lead-up to the 2013 election.”