"Teaching is a big workforce that nobody's monitoring," Professor Philip Riley says. "And that impacts our ability to make plans for the future." Without accurate and comprehensive data collection it cannot be determined how many teachers are seeking an alternate career, how many plan on returning to the workforce and how many retire early. What's more, teacher shortages — already evident in remote and regional areas — seem likely to continue given the number of students is predicted to increase 26 per cent by 2022. This, combined with the ageing workforce and high attrition rates, will likely result in larger class sizes, teachers teaching out of field and less experienced teachers being called upon to do more, all of which have serious implications for students and their learning. So given what's at stake, why aren't we tracking attrition more closely? "It's an issue of complexity and of cost," says Professor Riley. "We aren't investing in our teachers."
Gabrielle Stroud, 'Why do teachers leave?', ABC