Majority of teachers considering quitting as staff warn of 'dystopian' stress levels

Teachers have said they are struggling with stress and workload

Teachers are buckling under “dystopian levels” of stress, with nearly three in four considering quitting, a union warns today.

NASUWT General Secretary Patrick Roach accused the Government of ensuring “teaching is no longer a sustainable way to make a living”. The teaching union is consulting its members over possible industrial action on pay and workload.

The results of the consultative ballot – which could lead to a formal strike vote – will be announced at the NASUWT conference in Harrogate this weekend. A poll of more than 7,000 NASUWT members in England between January and March, found nearly three in four (73%) have seriously considered throwing in the towel in the past year.

Among those who considered leaving, half blamed pay for their decision. Nearly nine in ten (89%) said they were worried about their finances, as around one in 10 (11%) have had to take on a second job. More than one in four (28%) said they have had to increase their use of credit or apply for a payday loan in the last 12 months.

Around 40,000 teachers abandoned the profession last year – around 9% of the workforce – according to Department for Education (DfE) statistics. Dr Roach said: “Schools cannot function without teachers, and children cannot thrive without the care and expertise of their teachers, yet we face having too few teachers left.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We now have more teachers than ever before, with over 468,000 teachers in the workforce, a 27,000 increase on 2010. In 2023 we delivered the largest teacher pay award in over 30 years, and a minimum starting salary of £30,000.

“We have recently published our evidence to the independent pay review body to inform their recommendations for teachers’ pay for 2024/25. We’ll respond to their recommendations in the summer, in line with the usual process. We are also taking steps to ease teachers’ workload pressures which includes plans to support schools to reduce working hours for teachers by five hours a week.”