Scotland’s teacher-retention problem is not simply about recruiting enough new graduates. A study of 63 experienced teachers shows that many educators are leaving before retirement or reducing their hours after prolonged exposure to excessive workloads, difficult student behavior, and a sense that school leaders are not listening.
The research, published in the Oxford Review of Education, examined teachers from publicly funded Scottish schools who had either left the profession or reduced their hours or responsibilities. Thirty-six participants had left teaching altogether, while 27 had scaled back—often by moving from full-time work, surrendering promoted posts, or otherwise limiting their responsibilities. Most of these changes occurred within the previous 18 months. The study’s authors describe the process as a gradual withdrawal rather than a single decision.
Among those who quit, 25 said their dissatisfaction had accumulated over months or years. More than two-thirds of the former teachers were classified as “reluctant leavers”: people who still valued teaching but felt workplace conditions had become impossible to sustain. Participants described exhaustion, disrupted sleep, anxiety, and, in some cases, health crises requiring medical treatment.
Reducing hours did not necessarily solve the underlying problem. For many of the 27 teachers who downscaled, part-time work was an emergency coping mechanism or a staging ground for retraining and eventual departure. Others abandoned leadership roles to make daily life manageable. The findings challenge the idea that offering a smaller workload automatically creates a durable retention strategy; it may instead conceal a workforce preparing to exit.
The results fit a broader pattern identified in teacher-wellbeing research. A UK government review found that full-time school teachers worked an average of 51 hours during the surveyed week, with senior leaders averaging 57, while administrative work, marking, lesson preparation, staffing shortages, and behavior management consumed substantial time. It also found lower wellbeing among more experienced teachers. That review linked heavy workload and limited managerial support to poorer working conditions.
For schools, the message is that retention efforts cannot focus only on recruitment bonuses or new-entry programs. Preventing avoidable departures means identifying dissatisfaction earlier, reducing administrative pressure, supporting staff with student behavior, and giving experienced teachers meaningful influence over how their work is organized. Otherwise, systems may continue replacing veteran educators while missing the conditions that drove them out in the first place.
