A growing storm in NSW classrooms

Educators are walking away because Australia’s corporate-style approach to public education isn’t working, he writes John Frew.

Something is seriously wrong with our public schools. Teacher burnout, mental health issues and mass exit from the profession are just scratching the surface symptoms. While issues like pay and workload are part of the story, they don’t explain why so many educators walk away. At the heart of the crisis lies a deeper, more insidious problem: a system run by people who don’t understand education.

Over the past few decades, Australia has adopted an institutional-style approach to the conduct of public education. This model, which has its roots in the New Public Management concept of the 1980s, transformed schools into businesses and teachers into data producers. Accountability, efficiency and measurements are now mantraIt replaces professional judgment, collaboration and local knowledge.

Decisions about curriculum, assessment and school operations are now made by senior administrators and political appointees, many of whom have no classroom experience. This top-down control eliminated teachers’ professional autonomy, turning schools into compliance machines.

Management consultants often refer to: ‘Ignorance Iceberg‘, It’s a model that shows how front-line workers know most of what’s really going on, while managers remain largely unaware. This couldn’t be more true in education. As you move further away from the classroom, the decision-making process becomes more abstract and disconnected. Teachers face daily challenges that never get past bureaucratic filters.

Today, many policies reflect management logic rather than educational understanding. Standardized assessments, rigid improvement goals, and measures of school “success” dominate reform efforts. Major consultancies Deloitte, PwC and KPMG now assist with design training policydespite having no basis in teaching practice.

Even reforms aimed at supporting teachers often double the problem. The new federal Expert Panel on Teacher Education, chaired by a known proponent of corporate governance models, has recommended tighter controls, core content mandates and performance-based funding under the rubric of quality improvement.

NSW’s School Success Model may be presented as a bold reform, but it represents a further tightening of bureaucratic control. While principals were consulted, final decisions prioritized system-wide goals over school-level insight. Voice tests, attendance benchmarks and departmental interventions now define success. in this environmentLocal autonomy disappeared.

Despite recognition of teacher burnout and staff shortages, recent government reforms continue to rely on bureaucratic tools such as spreadsheets, KPIs and dashboards. Conclusion? More disempowerment. Teachers are increasingly treated not as skilled professionals but as executors of centrally designed plans.

The creation of a central quality board for teacher education and national pathways to teaching reflects the same mentality: control through rules, not support through trust.

This managerial approach has not only failed, but has actively harmed the profession. Teachers are leaving in record numbers; not because they don’t care, but because they are being micromanaged out of their jobs. Their passions are stifled by checklists. Their expertise is ignored for the sake of data. Their creativity is replaced by harmony.

The solution is not more leadership programs or fancier metrics. This is a complete rethinking of who should shape education policy. Teachers must be trusted again. Class voices must drive reform. And decision-making should be closer to where learning occurs.

Restoring the integrity of public education means rejecting the corporate governance model and rebuilding a system that respects, listens to, and empowers the people who know it best. Taking education back from managerialism is not just about improving schools; to restore the integrity, dignity and purpose of education.

John Frew has worked in education for nearly 50 years, including as a foundation principal at a secondary school for students with Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

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