Almost half of teachers have revealed they are ‘unlikely’ to remain in their profession due to burnout and mental health struggles, a new survey has revealed.
86% of the teachers said they had suffered personal burnout and work-related burnout over the last 12 months.
Mental Health UK defines burnout as a ‘state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion’ which can occur when a person is under long-term stress and/or constant pressure.
The research was carried out by Dublin City University, with 1,000 primary and secondary school teachers surveyed between November 2024 and February 2025.
More than a quarter (28%) of those surveyed said their mental health was ‘poor or very poor’ with 83% following up to say that they had received no training to deal with those struggles.
As a result of burnout and mental health, 42% admitted they were ‘unlikely’ to remain in teaching positions long-term.
Authors of the study said the burnout was likely due to aspects of work-life balance and challenges managing pupils — there was no correlation regarding age or gender of the teachers.
The research was carried out by Dr Sabrina Fitzsimons, Dr Pia O’Farrell and Professor Catherine Furlong from DCU’s centre for collaborative research across teacher education (Create).
Dr Fitzsimons stressed the importance of taking the findings and the poor wellbeing of teachers ‘seriously.’
She added that ‘there should be a coordinated approach to prioritise and address the structural factors contributing to teacher burnout.
‘It is hoped that a shift in mentality from understanding burnout as an individual issue to a systemic issue will arise from the findings of this study.’
Dr O’Farrell said that changes to the secondary school curriculum alongside the ‘rapid integration’ of AI in education were a ‘significant’ impact to a teachers’ approaches to teaching and assessment.
