Mr Andy Mison, President of the Australian Secondary Principals’ Association, explains why teacher and leader wellbeing must drive workforce reform.
Australia’s teaching profession stands at a critical juncture. Recent government initiatives have shown promise in addressing recruitment challenges, but the fundamental issues of educator workload, wellbeing, and professional standing remain largely unresolved. As we approach the National Teacher Workforce Roundtable on 19 September as I write this, sustainable solutions must emerge from the profession itself, not be imposed upon it.
The latest Australian Teacher Workforce Data reveals the depth of our challenges. Only 26 per cent of teachers intend to remain in the profession until retirement, with 39 per cent planning to leave before retirement age (AITSL, 2025). More concerning, the proportion intending to leave within five years increased by eight percentage points to 14 per cent from 2021 to 2023. When asked about their motivations, the responses are consistent: 75 per cent cite workload pressures, 69 per cent identify work-life balance concerns, and 68 per cent report work-related stress as primary factors influencing their departure intentions.
These figures represent the lived reality of educators working a median 50 hours per week during term time, with approximately 25 hours weekly dedicated to non-teaching tasks, and struggling to maintain balance between professional commitment and personal wellbeing (AITSL, 2025). For school leaders, the pressures are acute, with middle leaders reporting median working weeks of 50 hours and senior leaders 55 hours, alongside increasing administrative burdens that distance them from educational leadership.
More concerning still, the 2024 Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey reveals 67 per cent of secondary school leaders experienced threats of violence and 60 per cent faced physical violence, whilst 54 per cent triggered red-flag indicators for psychosocial risk (Australian Catholic University, 2024). When those charged with leading our schools face such extreme working conditions and safety concerns, the sustainability of the entire education system is called into question.
The 2022 National Teacher Workforce Action Plan (NTWAP) has yielded some early progress. Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has reported significant increases in teacher education applications, with universities recording their highest enrolments in teaching courses for over a decade. The government’s scholarship programme, offering $40,000 to undergraduate teaching students and $20,000 to postgraduates, has attracted strong interest with over 5,000 recipients committed to teaching in public schools.
The NTWAP’s five priority areas contain promising initiatives. The Workload Reduction Fund is supporting projects across jurisdictions, including Queensland’s $1.9 million pilot employing specialist staff to reduce administrative burdens. The ‘Be That Teacher’ media campaign successfully contributed to increased teacher education enrolments, but should become an ongoing mainstream media campaign that builds esteem and respect for the profession more broadly rather than a time-limited initiative.
These measures, whilst welcome, address symptoms rather than systemic causes. The teaching profession has endured decades of externally imposed reforms, accountability measures, and top-down mandates that have failed to improve student outcomes whilst demoralising the workforce. We must reverse this approach and place professional educator expertise at the centre of education policy development.
Meaningful reform requires fundamental shifts in how we conceptualise teaching as a profession. International evidence from high-performing systems like Finland and Singapore demonstrates that teacher professional autonomy, competitive compensation, and genuine career progression opportunities are prerequisites for workforce sustainability. In these systems, teachers are trusted as educational experts, granted time for collaboration and curriculum development, and provided with career pathways that allow advancement without leaving the classroom.
Australia must move beyond piecemeal interventions towards comprehensive transformation. This includes achieving salary agreements for educators across the country commensurate with the requirements of the job in the current climate. It requires adequate administrative systems and supports for school leaders. It requires reducing face-to-face teaching hours to OECD averages, providing dedicated time for planning and professional development, and eliminating punitive accountability measures that undermine professional judgement.
The profession itself must be meaningfully involved in designing these solutions. Education policy is too often developed by those removed from classroom realities, resulting in initiatives that sound promising in theory but prove unworkable in practice. Teachers and school leaders possess the professional knowledge and practical experience essential for effective reform design.
Professional associations representing educators require adequate resourcing to engage effectively in policy development processes. Currently, these organisations operate with limited capacity to conduct research, develop positions, and participate fully in complex policy environments. Investing in professional association capability would strengthen policy advice quality and ensure educator voices are heard in decision-making forums.
The upcoming National Teacher Workforce Roundtable presents an opportunity for systemic reform. As I write this, I will be attending Parliament House on 19 September representing Australia’s public secondary school principals alongside colleagues from the National Principals’ Reference Group, including representatives from public primary, independent, Catholic, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and special education sectors. We speak with one voice about the urgency of addressing educator workload, wellbeing, and professional standing through comprehensive, profession-led reform.
The path forward requires moving beyond incremental adjustments towards fundamental transformation of how we prepare, support, and value our educators. This means trusting teachers as professionals, providing working conditions and compensation that reflect the complexity and importance of their work, and creating systems that prioritise educator wellbeing alongside student outcomes.
Educator agency and wellbeing form the foundation for improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for our children and young people. No education system can succeed when its teachers and leaders are overworked, undervalued, and leaving the profession in unprecedented numbers. The time for meaningful, profession-led reform is now.
