From the secondary classroom to the early childhood centre, the conditions driving burnout in NZ education are workload, staffing shortages and unrelenting policy churn. The response needs to be structural too.
The evidence
86.6%
of educational professionals in Aotearoa are at high risk of burnout. The second-highest of any occupational group in the country.
Massey University Wellbeing@Work (Prof. Jarrod Haar), 2024
1 in 4
advertised secondary school positions could not be filled at all in early 2024. 1 in 10 had no applicants at all.
PPTA Te Wehengarua Staffing Survey, 2024
1 in 3
ECE educators frequently considered leaving the sector in the past six months. Burnout was the most-cited reason.
NZEI Te Riu Roa Kōriporipo Workforce Survey, 2025
What it looks like
Across the education sector the picture is now consistent: secondary teachers leaving for Australia, primary teachers absorbing unfilled posts, ECE kaiako covering unpaid hours to keep ratios safe, principals working sixty-hour weeks, and tertiary staff carrying the cumulative weight of restructure.
The 2024 PPTA staffing survey found 56% of principals had to employ untrained or unqualified teachers, up from 17% in 2019, and NZEI's 2025 Kōriporipo survey found 62% of ECE educators spent more than an hour each week doing unpaid work, with 79% saying minimum ratios don't allow their health and safety obligations to be met. For Boards of Trustees, principals, ECE operators and tertiary HR leaders, the people leaving are the experienced, mission-driven kaiako you can't easily replace, and the cost of inaction lands first on the children and ākonga.
The drivers
The single most-cited theme across PPTA and NZEI surveys. Teachers, principals and ECE kaiako carry workloads that have outgrown the timetable. Massey's national data shows working 55 or more hours a week increases burnout risk by more than four times. The unpaid work is no longer a goodwill margin. It is the operating model.
Vacancies compound. When positions go unfilled, the remaining workforce absorbs the work, which accelerates the next wave of attrition. PPTA's 2024 survey found 1 in 4 secondary positions could not be filled at all, and 1 in 10 had no applicants. ECE faces the same dynamic with the added pressure of legal ratios.
Pay parity uncertainty in ECE, repeated curriculum and assessment changes in schools, and restructure in the tertiary sector compound the day-to-day demands. NZEI's 2025 survey named pay parity uncertainty as a top reason ECE educators are considering leaving. The policy environment changes faster than the workforce can adapt to it.
How we help
3 Big Things works with education sector employers across Aotearoa: schools and Boards of Trustees, ECE operators, kindergarten associations, tertiary institutions, and the Crown agencies that hold system-level responsibility. We understand the operating environment, the Te Tiriti context, the role of ERO and the Teaching Council, and the difference between supporting a secondary teacher, a primary principal, an ECE kaiako, and a polytechnic lecturer.
Identify the structural drivers in your workforce Psychosocial hazard assessment aligned to ISO 45003 and WorkSafe NZ guidance, built for the realities of an education workforce. We recognise the distinct conditions of teaching, leadership, ECE and tertiary roles, and we surface the drivers that workload surveys typically miss.
Equip the leaders who carry the load Tumuaki, principals, deputy and assistant principals, ECE managers and senior tertiary leaders are the people whose own wellbeing most directly shapes the wellbeing of the workforce below them. We provide leadership coaching and development designed specifically for the realities of education leadership in Aotearoa.
Provide registered-psychologist support for kaiako, principals and support staff Confidential, mana-protecting clinical support delivered by registered psychologists with experience supporting education professionals. We understand the unique stressors of the role: parent and student incidents, behavioural management load, child protection, and the emotional weight of caring for ākonga.
We understand the regulatory and funding realities of education in Aotearoa: collective agreements, the Education and Training Act 2020, ERO requirements, and the difference between what an annual workforce survey shows and what's actually happening in the staffroom. We design our work around them.
Talk to us