00:00Hayley Gayle has swapped whiteboards for a fertility clinic in Perth's western suburbs.
00:08After 25 years of teaching, the workload and stress had become overwhelming.
00:13I had actually started to get physical symptoms in terms of stress-related things.
00:19I'd been to the doctor because I'd had heart palpitations and a few things like that, like
00:25breathing issues.
00:26She's now working as a donor coordinator, helping families link up with egg and sperm
00:31donors.
00:33During the COVID pandemic, when workloads exploded, the 53-year-old reached a tipping
00:38point.
00:39She's worked in both public and private systems and says teacher burnout is universal.
00:46It's not a school, it is every sector and the pay is not the issue because there are
00:51other times when I was getting paid more.
00:55It's the work-life balance, it's having basically no life.
00:59Teachers like Mrs Gayle are fed up by classes full to the brim and increased workloads.
01:09And it's driving them to leave sooner.
01:12I noticed quite a significant shift four or five years ago when I first started to work
01:16for the union that we saw teachers in that 60-65 year old bracket preparing for retirement
01:22and then post-COVID suddenly it's now 50-60.
01:25According to Jobs and Skills Australia, early childhood, primary and secondary school teachers
01:30were in shortage across every state and territory in 2022 and 2023.
01:37It also found primary and secondary school teachers were among the most in-demand jobs
01:42last year.
01:44The federal government estimates by 2025 there'll be a shortfall of 4,000 secondary teachers.
01:51It hasn't done similar modelling on primary schools.
01:55Experts believe the problem is far worse than what's been publicly acknowledged.
02:00We have seen teacher shortages in the past, no doubt.
02:02There has been moments of crisis which the media would have called a crisis and policy
02:07makers would have as well.
02:09But the scale and the scope of this particular crisis at the moment is unprecedented.
02:15Dr Karnovsky says the answer lies in more government funding in wraparound support services
02:21to ease the load on teachers, something he says contributes significantly towards burnout.
02:28They don't necessarily have the supports of counsellors, psychologists, social workers,
02:34even have occupational therapists, physiotherapists, people who can come into school and support
02:40teachers in the work that they do.
02:43The federal government says it's working to turn Australia's teacher shortages around
02:47through a range of reforms already in place, including Commonwealth-funded scholarships,
02:52paid practical placements for students and reforms to teacher training.
02:57One, two, three, four.
02:59Supporting teachers in meaningful ways so there are enough of them to inspire the next
03:04generation of learners.
Comments