Graduating high school students are continuing to turn away from teaching degrees in huge numbers, early application data shows, as concern grows over “unprecedented” workforce shortages.
The data, provided to Guardian Australia from the Universities Admissions Centre, showed education degrees received just 1,935 first preferences this year, a 19.24% decline compared with 2023 and the lowest rate since at least 2016, when public records became available.
Overall, education was ranked seventh out of 11 major areas of study.
Health received the highest number of first preferences (9,008), followed by society and culture (8,463) and management and commerce (5,277).
The education minister, Jason Clare, said in the past 10 years the number of young people going into teaching had gone backwards by about 12%.
“Of those who do start a teaching degree, only 50% finish,” he said. “And of those who finish it, 20% are leaving after less than three years.
“Teachers do one of the most important jobs in the world and we need more of them.”
Clare pointed to new $40,000 teacher scholarships rolling out in coming weeks as part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.
The scholarships will be available to 5,000 young people to become teachers provided they commit to the role for a number of years.
“In the next few weeks, we’re also launching a national campaign to promote the teaching profession, to encourage people to want to become a teacher by raising the status of the profession in the community,” Clare said.
“I want to change the way we as a country think about our teachers, and the way our teachers think our country thinks of them.”
The Australian Education Union federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said it was “vital” greater measures were taken to encourage students into teaching for public education to remain viable.
The federal government’s teacher workforce shortage paper, released last August, found schools were facing “unprecedented teacher supply and retention challenges”, with workforce shortages one of the “single biggest issues” facing teacher employers.
“We are concerned the status of teaching is not necessarily seen as an attractive option for students and that requires governments to invest in attraction and retention mechanisms,” Haythorpe said.
She pointed to teaching degree fees and the burden of unpaid placements placing pressure on students amid a cost of living crisis.
“Federal, state and territory governments must take bold and urgent action … governments at all levels should invest in paid placements for teaching students, proper mentoring programs and lowering the costs of teaching degrees.”
New South Wales and Victoria have both made significant announcements to address the workforce shortage this month.
Last week, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced students enrolled to become secondary school teachers would have their degrees paid by the state government, in an effort to fill “crippling” staff shortages in the sector.
It followed a deal sealed between the NSW deputy premier and education minister, Prue Car, and the teachers’ federation for starting salaries to rise from $75,791 to $85,000 and the highest salary from $113,042 to $122,100.
A submission by the former NSW government to the federal government’s Initial Teacher Education (ITE) review in 2021 acknowledged enrolments in the state had declined by almost 30% from 2014 to 2019.
“Many high achieving students are not choosing teaching as a career,” it read.
Car said the shortage of teaching students in the state was “no surprise”.
“The former NSW government spent 12 years suppressing wages and refusing to value teachers,” she said.
“The Minns government is committed to tackling the former government’s teacher shortage crisis … we have also reduced teachers’ workload and are lifting the status of the profession.”
Data from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment found across Australia annual commencements in ITE dropped by 8% between 2017 and 2020 and completions fell by 17%.
Former teacher and head of tutoring company Clever Cookie Academy, Peita Mages, said her top students were “not looking to teaching” after experiencing the workforce shortages first-hand.
“The exodus is worsening,” she said. “It’s truly concerning … I’ve never seen it like this.”
