By Holly Thompson

Copyright brisbanetimes

“Every week, I have teachers share with me their frustrations. Sometimes it’s younger teachers new to the profession who’ve been shocked by what they’ve seen … and increasingly, it’s veteran teachers with decades of experience who will say that the role has changed, and it’s harder than ever,” he said.

“The figures … confirm what we feared for some time, which is that we are on the cusp of a crisis in our teaching workforce.

“Behind each of those numbers is a real person – it’s someone who signed up to teach because they believe in the power of education to empower the next generation.

“But in complex classrooms with worse behaviour, with more strain and workload challenges and a lack of support from this government, too many are now being forced to walk away.”

Staltari called on Labor to “recognise this as the wake-up call that it is” and to “redouble its efforts” supporting teacher wellbeing, including assistance with complex needs and growing workloads.