Scathing review: 5000 teachers lost from Education Department in five years

Soaring levels of stress and burnout are forcing teachers out of WA public schools — with more than 5000 quitting in the past three years — a scathing review of the Education Department has revealed. Dropped just a few days before Christmas, the review outlines a litany of serious problems in the agency overseeing more than 330,000 students across 831 public schools. It is the result of eight months work by an independent reviewer appointed by the Public Sector Commission. “The increasingly complex needs of students have expanded teacher workload and are resulting in high levels of stress and burnout, with attraction and retention affected,” the review’s executive summary, published this week on the commission’s website, said. “In the last three years more than 5200 teachers have left the agency.” Coupled with the growth in the number of challenging students, it found “inadequate resourcing and support” was impacting schools’ ability to provide learning and safety for students. “Teachers are now teaching basic self-management skills and providing emotional and behavioural support at a level previously managed by families and communities,” it said. The report noted annual teacher resignations had more than doubled since 2019, from 604 to 1263. Attrition was particularly high among younger teachers, with 61.2 per cent of teachers quitting aged under 30. Exacerbating the problem was the ageing workforce, with retirements increasing by 15 per cent from 2020 to 2023. The review also highlighted the department’s lack of long-term strategic planning, inadequate communication and failure to provide support and leadership for school principals. “Without sufficient leadership and support, more autonomy can lead to increased stress, burnout and attrition,” it said. The commission began conducting agency capability reviews in 2021 to scrutinise the performance of government departments and drive improvements. Leading the review was Jo Gaines, a previous deputy chief-of-staff to former Premier Mark McGowan. Shadow Education Minister Peter Rundle said it was “nothing short of a disaster” that WA had lost 5200 teachers in just three years. “This underscores a Minister and department failing to address teacher burnout, low morale, and the increasingly complex needs of students,” he said. “The report also reveals that strategic planning has been abandoned, leaving schools — particularly those in regional and remote WA — severely under-supported and under-resourced.” Mr Rundle said the decision to release the report this week as everyone headed into the Christmas holidays was “a clear attempt by the Cook Government to avoid scrutiny”. A State Government spokesperson said the commission decided when the review would be released. Education Minister Tony Buti said the department was working on several initiatives to address teacher supply. “There were also positives to come out of this review and I am pleased they have been acknowledged and are part of the public sector improvement resource to help all agencies improve,” he said. Education Department director-general Jay Peckitt — who took the helm last month — said the review had delivered insights that would help it improve. “While we have several effective workforce initiatives already in place, we recognise the need for a more comprehensive overarching strategy for teacher recruitment and retention, and are committed to this as a priority,” he said. “The department is also working on a series of workload reduction initiatives to cut red tape, simplify tasks and give teachers more time to focus on teaching.” State School Teachers Union senior vice-president Natalie Blewitt said the findings — which highlighted “clear and obvious faults” in the current independent public schools system — reinforced conclusions from the union’s own review of public education.