Michelle Ryan
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Michelle Ryan published EARLY CAREER TEACHERS CONSIDERING LEAVING THE PROFESSION in Updates 2025-11-24 14:14:33 +1100
EARLY CAREER TEACHERS CONSIDERING LEAVING THE PROFESSION
Early career teachers are reporting overwhelming workloads, insufficient support, and inadequate preparation through initial teacher education (ITE), causing many to consider leaving the profession, according to a new AEU survey.
To coincide with the New Educators Conference in Brisbane, 22-23 November the AEU has released New Educator data from the State of Our Schools 2025 survey, a national report revealing a deeply concerning picture for Australia’s teacher workforce pipeline.
The survey of 800 early career teachers with 0–3 years’ experience shows that only 18% are certain they will stay in teaching for their entire career, and 30% expect to leave within 10 years, with excessive workload, student behaviour and insecure employment are driving many to consider leaving.
The findings highlight an urgent national challenge.
Fixing teacher shortages starts with keeping the new teachers we already have.
These early career teachers are the future of our profession, yet too many are already burning out. They are working extraordinary hours, facing increasingly complex student needs, and far too many are doing so without the mentoring and support they were promised.
If we are serious about addressing the teacher shortage crisis, governments must invest in proper induction, mentoring and secure jobs for new educators, not just leave them to simply sink or swim.
The report shows new educators work an average of 47.2 hours per week, with 74% working more than 40 hours and nearly one-third working more than 50 hours. Only 59% are employed permanently, compared to 87% of all teachers.
ITE remains a key pressure point: new educators rated their ITE experience just 5.9 out of 10, a decline from 6.8 in 2018. Nationally, 43% said their training did not prepare them well for the classroom, and only 5% felt “very well” prepared. Critical gaps were identified in managing difficult behaviour, teaching students with disability, supporting student wellbeing and working with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Only 5% of new educators received any follow-up from their ITE provider after graduating.
Support in schools is inconsistent. While 61% had a designated mentor, one in four new educators had no access to a mentor, and only 45% said their mentor was readily available. Meaningful induction and structured support remain the exception rather than the norm.
To address these issues, the AEU is calling for the establishment of a national early career guarantee that includes reduced teaching hours, classroom release time for mentors, an orientation program and structured networking opportunities for teachers in their first three years.
New educators have told us exactly what they need: secure jobs, reduced workloads in their first years, high-quality mentoring and ITE that genuinely prepares them for today’s classrooms.
Australia cannot afford to lose another generation of teachers. Governments must act now, with national workforce planning and guaranteed workload relief for early career teachers.
The AEU is calling on the Federal Government to:
- Introduce a national early career guarantee with reduced teaching hours, mentoring, and networking for teachers in their first three years.
- Reduce primary classes from an average of 23 students to the OECD average of 21.
- An additional two hours a week for teachers to plan lessons and collaborate with their colleagues.
- Increase the number of trained education support staff in the classroom.
- Increase the numbers of administration and support staff in schools to reduce teacher and principal workloads.
- Improve systemic support for teachers educating students with complex needs.
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Michelle Ryan published Coalition hiding their plans for the Australian Curriculum in Updates 2025-04-30 14:35:25 +1000
Coalition hiding their plans for the Australian Curriculum
As voting ramps up for the 2025 Federal Election, Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton has made clear that he wants to tell teachers how to teach and what to teach and that funding will be withheld unless they comply but is hiding their plans for the Australian Curriculum.
With only days to go and millions of Australians having already voted, the Coalition have failed to outline the changes they will make to the Australian curriculum, if elected to government.
Education has been a priority issue for voters this election and the continued silence from the Coalition on their plans is unacceptable.
With plans for school funding to be tied to a curriculum based on Mr Dutton’s ideology, the Australian people must immediately be told what the Coalition’s plans for the curriculum would look like before they vote, as promised.
The Coalition’s plan to tie school funding to changes in the curriculum highlights the danger to public education of electing Peter Dutton as Prime Minister.
Peter Dutton and the Coalition have attacked teachers throughout this campaign, with Trump-style fake claims of indoctrination and woke agendas.
Australia’s teachers have campaigned for increased public school funding and they deserve to be backed fully by governments with the resources needed in schools to deliver a high quality education for every child.
They also deserve to be respected and trusted to do their jobs without political interference.
Public school teachers have been fighting for the resources they need to give every child the education they deserve.
As election day approaches, voters deserve to know the specific details of the changes that the Coalition has planned for the Australian curriculum.
Australians must be fully informed before casting their votes because the future of our schools, our students, and our democracy is on the line.
Peter Dutton must come clean. Parents, teachers, students, and every Australian voter deserves nothing less.
Correna Haythorpe, Federal President, Australian Education Union
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Candidate Forum in Boothby
With topics discussed ranging from public school funding, to TAFE, to early education, voters were able to ask candidates about how they would support public education.
The candidates in attendance were current Labor Member for Boothby Louise Miller-Frost and Greens Candidate Joanna Wells.
It was disappointing that the Liberal Candidate for Boothby did not attend the forum.
One focus of the evening was the school funding agreement signed by the Albanese Government and the South Australian Government in January that will finally bring an end to the underfunding of public schools.
Along with Labor, the Greens support the full funding of public schools.
Voters now need to know what the other parties will do to ensure this funding is protected.
Peter Dutton has so far refused to state his position.
To coincide with this candidate forum in Boothby, the Australian Education Union (AEU) has released data that highlights why public school funding is a crucial issue this election for voters.
This data shows why public education must be a priority concern for all political parties and candidates in Boothby for the federal election.
Key points include:
- 58% of students in Boothby attend public schools
- When last in power, the coalition underfunded every student in Boothby by $2,021 each per year, and underfunded Boothby public schools by $34.4 million per year
- Public schools in Boothby have a higher proportion of students with additional needs, including 2.3 times the proportion of students from the lowest quartile of socio-educational advantage and 2.5 times the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students
This data demonstrates the high level of funding inequality that has been experienced by public schools in Boothby, denying teachers and students the vital resources needed for teaching and learning.
This election is an opportunity to vote for a better education for every child in Boothby’s public schools.
Full funding is the only way to ensure that every child gets the support they need to thrive and succeed.
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The election choice on schools
By Correna Haythorpe, Federal President, Australian Education Union
It will take until 2034 to get there but along the way public schools will benefit from a decade of guaranteed funding increases.
Schools can use that investment in ways that best meet the needs of students.
A priority will be specialist teachers who can provide intensive support to students struggling with their reading, writing or maths.
Depending on the needs of students, schools may bring in additional school counsellors and speech pathologists or extra teachers’ aides in the classroom. Increasing teacher numbers will allow class sizes to be cut.
Reducing unsustainable teacher workloads is what we will be advocating very strongly for. Teachers want to spend more time on their students and less time doing administration and compliance work and data entry.
States and territory governments have their own priorities as well with some, like Western Australia, looking at investing in innovative schooling models where additional health and community services, such as nursing, are provided in schools.
Making sure these agreements continue
These funding agreements only came about because of the campaigning of principals, teachers, support staff, parents and community members.
It is up to us to ensure people across the country know the opportunity they have to vote for a better education for children in public schools.
Right now, only 1.3% of public schools are fully funded to the government Schooling Resource Standard (SRS). The SRS is the minimum amount of funding that governments agreed over a decade was necessary to meet the needs of students.
Principals, teachers and support staff are doing amazing work in schools, but they are being asked to do too much with too little. Increasing funding means increasing the opportunities children have to learn and the support they receive.
Where the parties stand
At a national level, Labor has delivered on the commitment it took to the 2022 election to put public schools on a path to full funding. The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taken the initiative and negotiated the agreements with state and territory governments.
The Greens also support full funding. They want the funding to be delivered faster than it is under the agreements and for schools to be given enough additional funding to be able to get rid of voluntary fees and charges.
We have significant concerns about the position of the Liberal/National Coalition.
Peter Dutton has never expressed his support for the full funding of public schools in the three years he has been leader. What he has done is attack and undermine teachers.
The Coalition has also made contradictory statements about the funding agreements. After the NSW agreement was announced, the shadow finance spokesperson Jane Hume said the Coalition had not even discussed what its position would be on school funding.
But at the same time, Mr Dutton said he supported that agreement and so did the Coalition’s education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson.
Senator Henderson says the Coalition will honour the agreements and match the funding “dollar for dollar”. But there is no detailed policy statement setting which agreements would be honoured or where the money would come from.
Many of us remember what happened in 2013 when only weeks before the election Tony Abbott did a major backflip and announced he would honour the Gonski agreements, negotiated by the Labor Government, and match the funding “dollar for dollar”.
After he was elected, Mr Abbott tried within months to rip up the agreements and announced a $30 billion cut to school funding in his first budget.
It took the Coalition until 2017 to actually get rid of the Gonski agreements, despite all the evidence that the additional investment was having a profound, positive impact on student learning.
That decision denied public schools billions in funding, and it denied children across the nation the support that could have changed their lives.
How you vote in this election is up to you, of course.
But the choice right now is clear: a government that will invest in our public schools and our students or a Coalition with a track record of cutting funding for public schools and denying students the support they need to succeed.
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