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The rate of teacher turnover in southeast Asia is high, and it’s increasing year after year. The high rate of educators leaving the profession already existed prior to the pandemic; however, it has worsened substantially. The schools must take action now to improve their teacher retention rates. Even major Asian giant like India’s school system still lacks enough teachers and struggles with poor student-to-teacher ratio while up to 69% of its teachers are still working without any job contracts,  Unesco said in its State of the Education Report.

At SchooPed, we are familiar that there are several reasons for teacher attrition; here are those five reasons for teacher attrition:

Reasons for High Teacher Attrition Rates
#1: Stress
The number one contributor to teacher attrition is stress, and it can reveal itself in a variety of ways. As per a 2021 study, the pandemic has contributed to teacher anxiety in several ways, which include health and safety issues, communication, isolation, and concern for their students. Some other issues that may contribute to teacher stress and burnout are lack of preparation for the classroom, finances, lack of support from administrators, and student debt.

#2: High Workloads
Another issue leading to high teacher attrition is the workload that many teachers carry. It’s certainly impossible to separate this issue from the shortage because the shortage itself is increasing workloads. There are several instances where teachers who rated their working conditions, which includes workloads, as satisfactory, were less likely to leave their jobs in contrast to those who were dissatisfied with their working conditions.

#3: Poor Working Conditions
Now an issue that is closely related to teacher workloads is poor working conditions. The similar study we cited in the previous section mentioned working conditions as well. Whenever we talk about working conditions, we can refer to multiple issues that affect the way teachers feel about their jobs, including workloads, safety, class size, the availability of books and other classroom materials, and largely the availability of administrative and peer support.

#4: Inadequate Compensation
Adequate compensation for teachers is one issue that looms large.  Teachers often experience high financial stress in addition to job-related anxiety, as we mentioned in the section about stress. As most teachers carry a significant amount of student debt, it makes sense that compensation becomes an important issue for them.

#5: Lack of Administrative Support
As we have already mentioned, the significance of administrative support as a way of lowering teacher stress and turnover but it deserves another mention; this is because of how influential a lack of educational leadership in the educational sector can be. Some organisational aspects of schools, including administrative support, stronger teacher cooperation, recruitment management and effective principals, reduce teacher turnover.
 

SchooPed’s Take
We can conclude that teacher attrition rates may be high, but the reasons are not a mystery. The five issues we have addressed in this post are likely to be things that sound familiar to any school district or administrator. By applying suitable solutions, your school district can improve teacher retention rates and student outcomes.

At SchooPed, we understand the value of a teacher in a student’s life. We address the issue of teacher retention by creating a teacher-centered professional platform that starts with better recruitment management to teachers so they can better focus on what they care about most – student outcomes.