YOUNG teachers are being “driven out of the profession” by the impact of excessive workloads on their mental health, the National Union of Teachers warned yesterday.

An NUT survey of 3,000 teachers under the age of 35 found that 45 per cent thought they would leave the profession within five years. Nearly 50 per cent cited concerns over their mental health.

And 85 per cent said it had become “very difficult” to achieve a good work/life balance.

NUT general secretary Kevin Courtney said the results were “really disturbing.”

He said: “Young teachers are at the most idealistic stage of their careers.

“They are the future of the profession, yet many talented and enthusiastic professionals are being driven away from teaching to the detriment of our children’s education.

“The government needs to accept its responsibility in this crisis and take positive steps to resolve the issues behind the problems of teacher workload that are clearly blighting the profession.”

Henry Emoni, a maths teacher at a secondary academy in Essex, said: “It’s disheartening to see see how many people are leaving the profession.

“Teaching has always been a profession where you have to work extended hours, and we understand that. But … it just becomes very bureaucratic and it’s not about learning any longer.”

Eighty-three per cent of young teachers said administrative tasks added to workload but did not contribute to teaching.

Laura Chisholm, a science teacher in a Portsmouth secondary school, said she had recently taken a professional development course purely focused on assisting teachers with performance-related pay assessments.

She said “spending hours preparing evidence that you should be paid more” was not a good use of time.

“Maybe just trust us,” she said. “We don’t do it for the money.”