Teach Abroad Direct
Across the UK, state education is facing a quiet emergency. According to the Department for Education and its annual statistics on teachers and support staff report in 2025, almost one third of all teachers who qualified in the last decade in the UK have left their profession within state schools. A key reason for this is because of burnout as a result of immense workload. Data from the working lives of teachers and leaders summary report shows that the average number of working hours for teaching leaders was 57.4. On average, teachers working full-time worked 58.2 hours. For those working part-time, working hours were an average of 48.7.
For some teachers, what began as a fulfilling career has become an exhausting cycle of physical fatigue, heavy administrative demands and constant stress. Understanding the real cost of teacher burnout in the UK requires looking beyond late-night marking sessions. It's an ongoing education system issue that affects health, classroom stability and school budgets across the country. Facing these unsustainable pressures, qualified UK teachers across all subject areas are looking abroad to international teaching roles to reclaim their careers and personal lives.
The World Health Organisation officially recognises burnout not as a medical condition, but as an occupational phenomenon and a syndrome resulting from ongoing workplace stress that hasn't been successfully managed. While standard stress is often experienced over the short-term, burnout leads to profound physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. It occurs when workplace demands consistently exceed a person’s available time, energy and mental capacity. Over time, burnout causes a sense of complete detachment, helplessness and a lack of motivation. People suffering burnout often feel despair that their situation can't improve.
For teachers, burnout is a gradual process that can creep into professional duties and personal lives. Physically, teachers experience may experience the following symptoms:
When combined with personal pressures outside of school, the relentless demands of the classroom leave many teachers feeling like they are simply running on empty and unable to function effectively at work or enjoy their lives at home.
The 2025 Teacher Wellbeing Index published by Education Support shows that 76% of UK education staff report feeling stressed, while 77% have experienced poor mental health symptoms linked directly to their jobs. On the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, which is a scale used to measure a person's well-being based on whether they feel relaxed, happy, or content with others, teachers consistently score lower than the general population.
Alarmingly, more than a third of education staff produce scores that indicate probable clinical depression. The symptoms of burnout in the teaching profession show up in daily life. Cognitive fatigue makes simple lesson planning or decision-making feel overwhelming. Over time, this can turn into emotional detachment, where teachers can feel disconnected from their students and their original passion for teaching. Basic self-care routines can fall away, with teachers skipping proper meals or giving up personal evenings just to keep up with administration or marking.
According to Teacher Restore (a company that sells well-being membership to schools, colleges and universities), recruiting and replacing one teacher within a school costs anything up to £40,000. This figure can be even more when you take agency fees into consideration. This is because when permanent recruitment falls short, many UK schools turn to supply agencies to plug the gaps.
TES claims that moving a successful temporary teacher into a permanent role seems like an ideal 'try-before-you-buy' solution for both schools and teachers, but converting an agency temp to a permanent contract comes with a hefty price tag. Agencies frequently charge finder's fees of up to 20% of a new teacher's annual salary, leaving cash-strapped schools with large bills starting at £3,000-£6,000 for just a single hire. While experienced headteachers and business managers attempt to negotiate these fees down (sometimes whittling a £10,000 charge down to £6,000), or they may require teachers to complete a full term on supply first, these exorbitant costs spark debates about leadership, staff retention and critical funds that are drained from school budgets and student resources. In 2023/24 alone, according to a 2025 Department for Education press release, UK state schools spent £1.4 billion on agency staff.
There's a social cost too – high staff turnover leads to reliance on short-term supply teachers, which breaks down consistency and pupil relationships. As vacancies remain unfilled, pupil-teacher ratios rise, leading to larger class sizes. In fact, the proportion of secondary pupils in classes of more than 30 has risen significantly over recent years. With more pupils per class, teachers have more individuals to monitor and keep in check for behaviour, and more pupils can result in more potential for disruption. National Behaviour Survey data from 2024-25 reveals that UK teachers lose an average of seven minutes for every 30 minutes of lesson time simply managing low-level classroom disruption.
A report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) in 2025 claims that 90% of teachers who thought about quitting in 2023-24 did so because of their workload making their positions untenable. Figures from the report also show recruitment is down, with six job vacancies for every thousand teachers in service – twice the number before the Covid-19 pandemic and six times more than in 2010-11.
The pressure driving educators away is not limited to classrooms alone, but it's also present within the initial teacher training system itself. 2025 research led by Dr Sabrina Fitzsimons of Dublin City University and Dr David Smith of Robert Gordon University highlights that the inspection regime run by Ofsted contributes to chronic stress, exhaustion and burnout among the teachers who are responsible for training the next generation of staff. The study revealed that many teacher trainers experience severe anticipatory stress, i.e. feeling like they are on constant red alert for months while waiting for an unpredictable inspection call, which effectively doubles their workload and pulls time away from teaching and mentoring. Some participants described the inspection culture as toxic, admitting that "if anything was going to drive you out of teacher training… it would be Ofsted." The research highlights how intense scrutiny from institutions like Ofsted threatens stability within the UK's education system, driving an anxiety and burnout crisis among teachers.
According to the Teacher Well-being Index 2025, stress, depression or anxiety in 2023/24 accounted for almost half (46%) of all work-related ill health. Within education, this represents 2.5 million working days lost due to work-related illness at an economic cost of around £1.8 billion.
Faced with an alternative that brings a better work-life balance and lower stress levels, qualified teachers who feel burned out from teaching in the UK are finding a more sustainable and rewarding path forward in international education. Overseas schools in countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Spain, China and South Korea actively seek UK-trained subject specialists across primary, secondary, early years and adult education levels, all while offering lucrative salary packages and more opportunities for career development.
One of the main reasons teachers make the move abroad is to enjoy manageable workloads and smaller class sizes. International schools operate in a competitive global market where the focus is on academic quality and student engagement rather than excessive red tape. Data from the International Schools Database for example shows that the average class size of international schools in Thailand is 16.9 students. Dubai's school regulator, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), also sets strict capacity recommendations. British-curriculum international schools in Dubai average a student-to-teacher ratio of 16:1, with typical class sizes capped between 18 and 22 students (compared to 30+ in local or lower-fee providers). Smaller class sizes enable teachers to give each student individual attention without feeling overwhelmed. Fewer students per class also mean reduced preparation and marking time, so these aspects of teaching can be integrated directly into the school day, allowing teachers to leave work at a reasonable hour and reclaim their evenings and weekends.
Financial benefits and purchasing power also play a massive role. In regions like the Middle East such as the UAE and Qatar, international teaching salaries are completely tax-free. Contracts frequently include free fully furnished housing, health insurance, annual flight allowances and childcare and school places for dependents if required. In popular destinations across East and Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, Vietnam and China, lower living costs mean standard international salaries stretch much further, allowing teachers to save a substantial portion of their income while enjoying a high standard of living. Under Gulf labour laws, teachers completing their contracts receive a statutory lump-sum end-of-service bonus, which is typically calculated as 21 to 30 days of basic salary for every year of service. A teacher staying three to five years can exit with an extra five-figure lump sum in savings. With main living expenses like rent, bills, healthcare and flights completely eliminated from monthly outgoings, international teachers based in a city like Dubai have the potential to save AED 6,500 (£1,321.35) every single month, which is virtually impossible on a UK state school salary.
Beyond practical benefits, teaching abroad restores vocational pride and professional respect. In many international cultures, education is held in high esteem, and teachers are deeply valued by parents and local communities. Because many international schools are selective or fee-paying, classroom discipline issues drop dramatically, allowing teachers to spend their time teaching the subjects they love. Due to the high costs of tuition fees at international schools, a lot of investment is made back into school infrastructure and staff training. International markets offer lots of opportunities for professional development and career advancement, which allows ambitious UK teachers to step into leadership roles far more quickly than they would if they were climbing the career ladder back home.
Teaching abroad at an international school can also offer a better quality of life through travel, leisure and free time experiences that you might not get in the UK on your days off.
In countries like Dubai and Qatar, weekends typically involve a half working day on Friday, and revolve around high-end leisure and outdoor lifestyle. Pristine beach clubs, luxury shopping malls, desert safaris and fine dining are just some of the treats on offer. With a thriving expat social scene, it's also easy to meet people and make friends anywhere from the gym to a bottomless brunch club. Having major hubs like Dubai International (DXB) and Hamad International (DOH) make spontaneous long-weekend trips to Oman, Sri Lanka, Asia or Europe effortless, too.
Thailand delivers an incredible blend of nightlife and travel. Teachers in Bangkok can spend evenings exploring world-famous night markets, on-trend rooftop bars and street food stalls. On long weekends, inexpensive short flights or quick ferry rides mean you can island-hop to Phuket, scuba dive in Koh Tao or trek through northern rainforests in Chiang Mai.
East Asia offers some of the most dynamic mega-city experiences on the planet. In Seoul, teachers immerse themselves in trendy districts like Hongdae and Gangnam, filled with late-night Korean BBQ eateries, speakeasies, 24-hour karaoke rooms and world-class shopping. In China, cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen combine futuristic living and technology and buzzing expat nightlife with rapid high-speed rail connections, allowing teachers to explore ancient water towns, mountain ranges and historic sights every weekend.
If you prefer somewhere closer to home and a relaxed European pace, Spain in particular focuses on community and culture. Teachers enjoy the siesta time in the middle of the day when shops close, and late-night dining and nightlife are buzzing in hubs like Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia. With good train and airline connections, exploring Europe during school holidays is also cheap and convenient.
According to The Times, in June 2024 roughly 145,000 British teachers were working in international schools overseas. This is a 50% increase since 2014-15.
Burnout doesn't have to be the price teachers pay for pursuing a career in education. While state schools in the UK continue to struggle with systemic workload challenges and a general lack of funding (£4.5 billion of cuts in 16 years), international schools offer qualified British teachers the resources, support and a more calming and productive work-life balance. By exploring teaching opportunities abroad, you can maintain your professional identity as a teacher while securing the compensation, lifestyle and respect you deserve.
At Teaching Abroad Direct, we help UK teachers secure jobs in international schools around the world.
Visit www.teachingabroaddirect.co.uk to learn more about teaching opportunities overseas.
Teaching Abroad Direct regularly speaks with British teachers currently working abroad.
Journalists interested in speaking with teachers currently working in other countries can contact us via [email protected]
