Australia is facing one of the most severe teacher shortages in the world, according to newly released findings from the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (“OECD”) Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) for 2024. Some forty-two per cent of lower-secondary principals in Australia reported that teacher shortages were obstructing instructional quality—nearly double the OECD average of twenty-three per cent.

The crisis is especially acute in regional and disadvantaged schools, where one-in-three schools lack adequate teachers.

The figures show sixty-three per cent of schools in regional towns and sixty-seven per cent of disadvantaged schools in Australia report shortages.

Australia now ranks among the top three OECD countries for teacher shortages in public settings.

Regional principals report frequent changes in leadership and unstable staffing, undermining community confidence and continuity.

“When you’ve got principals changing over every few months… the trust and the confidence of the community in that school drops,” said a principal in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

The survey also revealed that full-time teachers in Australia are working an average of forty-six and a half hours per week, compared with the OECD average of about forty-one hours.

Roughly sixty-five per cent identify high stress levels, and eighty per cent say their job is harming their mental health.

The data underscores links between high workloads, attrition and staffing instability.

Teaching-profession morale is slipping: only thirty-three per cent of Australian teachers believe their profession is valued in society—a decline of eleven percentage points since 2018. Although fifty-five per cent now report satisfaction with their salary (up from earlier levels), pay remains a key driver of retention concerns, particularly in hard-to-staff and remote schools.

Australia’s federal and state governments launched the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan in 2022, designed to improve recruitment and retention.

Some progress has been made: for instance, teacher vacancies in one major state fell by sixty-one per cent over three years.

However, analysts say such initiatives do not yet match the scale of the shortfall.

Education-sector leaders warn that without urgent structural reform—focusing on workloads, regional incentives, career pipelines and adequate funding—students in the most vulnerable schools will face worsening educational inequities.

The nation’s standing as a wealthy, developed country places heightened expectation on authorities to turn the tide.