Australian teachers lose one-third of lesson time to student misbehaviour, survey finds

One-third of lesson time is being lost as student misbehaviour reaches "crisis" levels in rowdy Australian classrooms, according to a new survey of hundreds of teachers across the country.

Blaise Joseph, a former teacher and education director at the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), which ran the survey, said teachers reported, on average, losing 9 minutes out of 30 minutes of teaching time to student impropriety.

"The term 'crisis' should not be used lightly," he said.

"But losing almost one-third of teaching time to student misbehaviour is of sufficient scale and urgency to warrant that description."

The findings come just after national NAPLAN testing revealed one-third of Australian students were not meeting expectations in literacy and numeracy.

"That's about 12 weeks of learning lost per year. In some schools where there's particularly disruptive behaviour, it could be much more than that," Mr Joseph said.

Mr Joseph said misbehaviour was often "low level" and defined as anything that disrupted learning and prevented teachers from teaching.

He said this behaviour over time was "exhausting" for educators and had a significant impact on their wellbeing.

"One in 10 teachers said it had a significant negative effect on their health and wellbeing in the past week," he said.

Female teachers were more likely to report losing teaching time to student misbehaviour and twice as likely to report this having a significant impact on their health and wellbeing.

"There is lots of anecdotal evidence in recent years that female teachers are especially bearing the brunt of some misogynistic conduct from students," Mr Joseph said.

"While we can't draw a direct link, this is absolutely consistent with that concern."

Education departments prevent teachers from speaking to the media, but one male educator who spoke on the condition of anonymity backed those concerns.

"I definitely think there's more misogyny," the teacher said.

The issue of misogyny in schools was the subject of a separate Monash University survey released last week, with 78 per cent of teachers reporting observing or experiencing sexism or misogyny in school, with one in three observing or experiencing it frequently.

Last month in separate incidents, teenage male students from two Sydney private schools were charged with sexual assault offences against female students.

Misbehaviour 'especially bad' in Australian schools

The CIS findings are consistent with data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international test taken by 15-year-old students across the world every three years.

In 2022, about 42 per cent of Australian students reported noise and disorder in their maths class, compared to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 30 per cent.

There were similar findings in 2015 and 2018.

The findings are also backed by data from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), the national body responsible for teacher standards and workforce data.

The proportion of teachers intending to leave the profession who cited student behaviour as a reason rose from 25 per cent in 2020 to 47 per cent in 2024.

A Senate inquiry into disruption in classrooms in 2024 also found classroom disruption was a significant and worsening problem, damaging learning time and the teaching workforce.

The government responded to the report earlier this year, more than two years later, agreeing, agreeing in-principle or noting the nine recommendations.

Mr Joseph has called for student misbehaviour to be addressed as "an urgent national education priority".

He would like a behaviour curriculum explicitly teaching students better classroom manners, as well as a national survey of teachers like that conducted in England in 2021.

The survey helped the nation measure the problem and introduce solutions, including a well-funded behaviour hub where high-performing schools mentored those experiencing issues and whole-of-school behaviour frameworks to take pressure off teachers.

The English survey found an average of 7 minutes were lost per half hour of teaching, compared to the 9 minutes reported by the CIS survey.

Minister concedes more work to do

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said disruptive behaviour was a "big issue" that was stopping kids from learning.

"This report reinforces what a lot of teachers tell me. Managing disruptive behaviour is one of the most challenging parts of the job," Mr Clare said.

He said governments had made a number of reforms, including banning mobile phones in classrooms, improving teacher training and giving teachers new resources.

"The agreements we have signed with every state and territory to fix the funding of our public schools also include initiatives to improve student engagement and wellbeing," Mr Clare said.

"There's more to do. I recently met with classroom management expert Dr Tim McDonald to discuss what more we can do to make sure kids are engaged in learning."

Mr Clare said it was discussed at the most recent education ministers' meeting.

Shadow Education Minister Julian Leeser said every teacher deserved to teach "without disruption or abuse".

"We need a reliable national baseline to understand its scale, including the cumulative impact of low-level disruption," Mr Leeser said.

Mr Joseph said the reason why Australian kids' classroom behaviour was worsening was "complex" to pin down.

"My view is that [it] is due to a combination of shorter student attention spans associated with excessive screen use, less parental support for schools when they impose consequences for misbehaviour, and less consistency within schools in applying those consequences," Mr Joseph said.

"More generally, student misbehaviour is often due to a lack of impulse control, which can be improved over time through consistent expectations and routines."