The data tells a consistent story: Australian students are increasingly likely to sit in classrooms where their teacher is overworked, demoralised, and thinking about leaving the profession entirely. The latest OECD Education at a Glance report, released in 2025, places Australia in the company of education systems in crisis, not recovery.
For students like those in rural Queensland or disadvantaged suburbs across Australian cities, the stakes couldn't be higher. More than half of all Australian principals, 58.1 per cent, report they cannot find enough qualified teachers to staff their schools properly. This is nearly triple the OECD average of 24.9 per cent. What makes this crisis distinct is not that it is recent, but that it is accelerating. The proportion of lower secondary teachers working in schools with teacher shortages has tripled from 14 per cent in 2018 to 42 per cent in 2024.
The research is clear on this point: the shortage is not distributed equally. Schools serving disadvantaged students have become the sharp end of the crisis. In schools where more than 30 per cent of students come from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, 66.9 per cent of principals report shortages. This is second only to Bahrain globally and more than double the OECD average of 31.7 per cent. Special education bears the heaviest burden of all, with Australia recording the highest special education teacher shortage rate in the entire OECD at 63.9 per cent.
This concentration matters because it deepens equity divides. Students already facing the greatest educational challenges encounter the most transient, under-resourced teaching environments. Relief teachers, subject-area mismatches, and merged classes become the norm.
Teachers across Australia report conditions that reflect this crisis. The average teacher works 46.5 hours per week, well above the OECD average of 40.8 hours. Almost two-thirds report high stress, and more than 80 per cent say their job negatively impacts their mental health. Nearly 47 per cent of Australian teachers are considering leaving the profession within the next 12 months, up sharply from 14 per cent in 2021. The reasons are not mysterious: 70 per cent cite unmanageable workloads.
Governments have begun responding. New South Wales offers experienced teachers $10,000 annually, payable for up to five years, plus rural relocation incentives of $20,000 to $30,000 depending on remoteness. Victoria has increased relocation incentives to $50,000 for hard-to-staff positions. Queensland provides beginning teachers in Far North Queensland or North Queensland up to $20,000 in support payments. The federal government offers teaching scholarships of up to $40,000 for new students entering the profession.
Yet these measures, while genuine, sit against a deeper problem. Teaching degree applications did increase by 7 per cent this year, with offers up 14 per cent compared to 2024. Australian Catholic University's Brisbane campus saw enrolments jump 41 per cent, a bright spot suggesting targeted recruitment works. However, a 7 per cent increase in applications does not close a gap where 42 per cent of secondary teachers report working in schools with staff shortages. The problem is not principally one of supply, but of retention.
Parents deserve to know that the teaching profession faces a retention crisis as much as a recruitment crisis. Financial incentives help, particularly for rural and remote positions, but they address the symptom rather than the cause. A teacher earning $84,078 to start in Queensland, even with $20,000 in support payments, remains undercompensated relative to peers in other professions. A teacher working 46 hours per week faces burnout regardless of bonus schemes. A special education teacher in a disadvantaged school confronts systemic pressures no additional payment will resolve.
The federal government's National Teacher Workforce Action Plan signals intent to address these issues through teacher education reform, support for beginning teachers, and workforce data collection. Whether these measures can reverse a tripling of shortage rates over six years remains uncertain.
What is certain is that the current trajectory harms the students most at risk of educational disadvantage. For as long as nearly half of Australia's teachers are considering leaving, and vacancy rates in disadvantaged schools exceed two-thirds of the OECD average, Australia's education system will continue managing a crisis rather than resolving one.