A recent analysis from the Danish Economic Council of the Labour Movement (AE), based on data from Statistics Denmark, reveals a troubling trend: newly qualified teachers are leaving public schools faster than their predecessors. According to the study, almost 20 percent of teachers who graduated in 2018 and immediately started working in public schools had left their positions within three years. Five years after completing their education, 23.7 percent of these teachers were no longer employed in public schools. Emilie Damm Klarskov, chief analyst at AE, notes that this trend is accelerating: “Among primary school teachers who graduated in 2013, it took five years before every fifth had left the public school system. Among those from 2018, it only took three years.”
This trend indicates that more newly qualified teachers are choosing to leave public schools shortly after their employment, which could have significant consequences for the education system and teaching quality.