As public schools across NSW buckle under pressure, exhausted teachers are walking away, exposing a system in desperate need of reform, writesJohn Frew.

SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY wrong in our public schools. Teacher burnout, mental health struggles and a mass departure from the profession are just the surface symptoms.

While issues like pay and workload are part of the story, they dont explain why so many educators are walking away. At the heart of the crisis lies a deeper, more insidious issue: a system governed by people who dont understand education.

Over the past few decades, Australia has embraced a corporate-style approach to running public education. Rooted in the 1980s concept ofNew Public Management, this model reshaped schools into enterprises and teachers into data producers. Accountability, efficiency and metrics became the mantra, replacing professional judgment, collaboration and local knowledge.

Inequality in the Australian educational system has placed our nation far behind most countries while the Government ignores the situation.

Decisions about curriculum, assessment and school operations are now made by senior managers and political appointees, many with no classroom experience. This top-down control has turned schools into compliance machines, stripping teachers of their professional autonomy.

Management consultants often refer to theIceberg of Ignorance, a model that shows how frontline workers know most of whats really going on, while executives remain largely unaware. In education, this couldnt be more accurate. The further removed from the classroom, the more abstract and disconnected the decision-making becomes. Teachers face daily challenges that never make it past the bureaucratic filters.

Instead of educational insight, many policies today reflect managerial logic. Standardised assessments, rigid improvement targets and school success metrics dominate reform efforts. Major consulting firms,Deloitte,PwCandKPMGnow help design education policy, despite having no grounding in teaching practice.

Even reforms meant to support teachers often double down on the problem. The recent FederalTeacher Education Expert Panel, led by a known advocate of corporate governance models, recommended tighter controls, core content mandates and performance-based funding, all under the banner of quality improvement.

NSWsSchool Success Modelmay be presented as bold reform, but it represents a further tightening of the bureaucratic grip. While consultation with principals occurred, final decisions prioritised system-wide targets over school-level insight. Phonics testing, attendance benchmarks and departmental interventions now define success. In this environment, local autonomy has withered.

Universities are too important to Australia's education system to be thought of as corporate enterprises.

Despite acknowledging teacher exhaustion and staff shortages, recent government reforms continue to rely on bureaucratic tools spreadsheets, KPIs and dashboards. The result? More disempowerment. Teachers are increasingly treated not as skilled professionals, but as implementers of centrally designed plans.

The creation of a central quality board for teacher training, along with national pathways into teaching, reflects this same mindset: control through rules, not support through trust.

This managerial approach hasnt just failed, it has actively damaged the profession. Teachers are leaving in record numbers, not because they dont care, but because they are being micromanaged out of the job. Their passion is stifled by checklists. Their expertise is ignored in favour of data. Their creativity is replaced with compliance.

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

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. To reclaim education from managerialism is not simply to improve schools, it is to restore the integrity, dignity and purpose of teaching itself.

John Frewhas worked in education for almost 50 years including as foundation principal at a secondary school for students with Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Disturbance.