Nine out of ten teachers say they’re satisfied with their jobs, despite the pressures and challenges that come with the profession. The report comes from a major survey of about 280,000 teachers and school leaders across 55 education systems, according to a press release from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Nearly three-quarters said they’d choose teaching again if they could start over, and 95 percent said making a social contribution matters to them.
The OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey, known as TALIS, sampled 17,000 lower secondary schools in 2024. It’s designed to help governments figure out what works in education and where they need to do better. The results show teachers feel most valued in Viet Nam, where over 92 percent say society respects their work. Bulgaria, Denmark, and Saudi Arabia have each boosted that number by at least 19 percentage points since 2018.
But the teaching workforce is getting older—the average age across OECD countries is now 45, and in Latvia, Lithuania, and Portugal, it’s 50 or higher. Many governments are pulling in people from other careers to fill the gap. Second-career teachers now make up 21 percent of Iceland’s teaching force and 17 percent in Australia, where fast-track training programs have made it easier for professionals to switch fields mid-career.
“Skilled teachers are the foundation for high-performing education systems,” said OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. “By continuing to strengthen teacher training and the tools available to them, we can ensure that students are well-prepared for a bright future.”
One in three teachers now uses artificial intelligence at work, though seven in ten worry it makes cheating easier for students. Singapore leads in AI adoption, with three-quarters of teachers using it, mostly to research topics and generate lesson plans. But younger teachers are getting stuck with the toughest assignments—in nearly half the systems surveyed, teachers under 30 are more likely to work in demanding classrooms with students who have language difficulties.
