Poor discipline in Australian schools is contributing to a “high level of teacher attrition” at the same time student disengagement is on the rise, according to a new international report.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s education policy outlook in Australia report lists teacher turnover and “supply challenges” as key difficulties for the system, blaming a lack of “career pathways” among other factors.
The report cited Department of Education statistics that Australia faces a projected deficit of 4,100 high school teachers by 2025.
Australian teachers worked “higher-than-average net teaching hours” and received “slightly less competitive salaries compared to other similarly educated professions, except for school principals”, the OECD said.
A teacher in the younger years of high school earns about 99% of the average salary of other tertiary-educated workers, which was above the OECD average of 90%, while principals earned 185%, among the highest in the OECD.
But the report found “the disciplinary climate in schools in Australia was among the least favourable in the OECD”.
According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) index, which asks students how often noise and other disruptions occur in the classroom, and grades countries around an average of zero, Australian classrooms rate at -0.2 while the OECD average is slightly positive (0.04).
The 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey found 37% of Australian lower-secondary school principals reported that intimidation or bullying among students occurs at least weekly, the report said.
“At the same time, a smaller share of Australian teachers than their peers across the OECD reported feeling prepared for, or capable of, managing disruptive classroom behaviour,” it said.
“Student truancy was also higher than the OECD average, with one in three 15-year-olds (33%) reporting to have skipped at least one day of school in the two weeks prior to the Pisa 2018 test, compared to one-in-five (21%) on average across the OECD.”
The report also found evidence of “growing disengagement” in the later years of high school “following the interruptions to students’ learning engendered by the Covid-19 pandemic and climate-related shocks”.
It also cited “continued low performance for some student groups” including Indigenous, rural, and students with disability.
According to Naplan data, Indigenous students in year 3 are “around 10 times as likely not to reach national minimum standard than the total student population”.
The OECD found Australia “remains a high performer” in Pisa tests, but with “a trend of a gradual decline in … scores since its first participation in 2000”.
It suggested greater access to early childhood education particularly for disadvantaged and Indigenous students could help improve “stagnant” results.
In 2019, 90.5% of 25 to 34-year-olds in Australia had at least upper secondary education, and 52% had a tertiary qualification, compared to OECD averages of 85% and 45%.
The report noted the share of young adults aged 18 to 24 who were not employed or in education or training increased during the pandemic, from 11% in 2019 to 16% in 2020, but returned to its pre-pandemic level in 2021.
The OECD said that Australia “needs to make [vocational education and training] more attractive and relevant for all students”, and called for greater investment in skills training.
The education minister, Jason Clare, said the report “confirms the equity issues and teacher workforce challenges we face, particularly in early childhood education and school classrooms”.
After a Productivity Commission report on the national school reform agreement, the Albanese government vowed to introduce targets for improvement and tie funding to uptake of reforms.
Clare said: “If you’re a child today from a poor family, or from the bush, or you’re an Indigenous child, then you’re three times more likely to fall behind at school … We must turn this around.”
