Schools across Australia are experiencing significant staffing pressures, with teacher shortages now widely recognised as a systemic and enduring issue. This report examines the lived experiences of teachers during unprecedented shortages, focusing on those who remain in hard-to-staff Australian schools and how systems can better support retention.

Housing affordability is undermining efforts to address teacher shortages in New South Wales. The policy challenge for government is securing the right qualified teachers where they are most needed in the system. This report analysed teacher workforce and housing shortages to set out clear policy opportunities for government action to supply key worker housing.

This policy brief analyses the state of teacher shortages in Australia based on data drawn from the 2024 OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey, based on lower secondary teachers. The analysis shows that Australia’s education system is facing a significant staffing crisis, leaving Australia among the worst-performing nations in the OECD.

The Northern Territory faces a critical shortage of Aboriginal school teachers. This report presents findings from a study which explored how teaching is perceived as a career by Aboriginal senior secondary students and current Aboriginal teachers. The study also examined strategies to promote teaching as a viable and appealing profession.

Teacher attrition – the rate at which teachers leave the profession – is often seen as a key factor behind teacher shortages in Australia. Using linked administrative tax data, this analysis offers a detailed picture of who is leaving the teaching profession, when they leave and what they do next.