After a summer of record-breaking dryness, forest fires and unhinged policy decisions from our neighbours to the south, September has arrived.

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In the quiet moments of summer’s last gasp, schools are a magical place. Hallways hum with invisible energy, gymnasiums echo with the silent sound of last year’s competitions, performance spaces resonate with June’s final crescendos and buzz with the remnants of closing night applause. Your local public school holds its breath in anticipation of the arrival of the kids.

Then the doors open, students rush in and we are off to meet whatever heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, soul-fulfilling, awe-inspiring moments await us in the most amazing of all professions.

This year, of course, will come with its share of triumphs and challenges. So, as has been my penchant over the past few years, here is my list of issues I believe will dominate educational discourse in 2025-26.

The issue of schools not having enough qualified teachers to fill classrooms is far from new. As early as 2015, alarm bells were being sounded about staffing shortages around the globe.

In the U.K., the BBC reported that despite offering top B.Ed. graduates bursaries of about $45,000, teacher trainee programs had fallen thousands of teachers short of recruitment targets. In the U.S., a report on teacher attrition determined“roughly half a million U.S. teachers either move or leave the profession each year.” Australian experts were