A quiet crisis is growing in our schools

At the heart of a successful school is a thoughtfully designed educational journey, supported by a respectful partnership between school and home

- Stuart West

At a recent gathering of educational leaders from around the world at the G30 Heads Conference in Australia and New Zealand, a troubling pattern emerged. School heads from different continents, serving diverse communities, were reporting similar problems: parents who were increasingly viewing education as a transaction rather than a relationship, teachers feeling under siege and students who seemed less equipped to handle adversity than previous generations.

This isn’t a story about “difficult parents” or “failing schools”. It’s about a fundamental shift in how we're raising and educating our children, one that may be inadvertently undermining the very qualities we most want to develop.

The statistics are sobering. In South Africa, nearly half of all teachers are set to retire within the next decade. Similar teacher shortages are emerging globally. An Australian study led by Robyn Brandenburg sheds new light on the growing crisis of teacher attrition, calling for urgent systemic reform to better attract, support and retain teachers. Uniquely, this research examined the perspectives of both former teachers and school leaders, revealing a range of reasons for their departure. Key factors included an increased workload, the lack of respect for the teaching profession and the failure to acknowledge teachers’ professional skills and expertise.

Many participants expressed a deep love for teaching — some even referring to it as “the best profession in the world” — yet still felt compelled to leave. The study found that a significant proportion of those who left the profession (20%) had seven to 10 years of experience. These findings highlight a deeper and more persistent crisis: experienced, highly capable teachers are leaving the profession, which has implications for student learning, school culture, succession planning and the sustainability of the education workforce.