Pay more to help teacher shortage: academic

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The Dean of Education at the University of Western Australia says he is not surprised at projections showing WA will be more than 2,000 teachers short in the next seven years.

A report on teacher demand and supply released by the state government shows teacher retirements will peak by 2015.

Professor Dean Louden says the shortfall is a simple labour market question and employers need to make the profession more attractive.

"30 years ago there were relatively few occupations that required people to have degrees before they could work in them and now many occupations employ graduates," he said.

"What has to happen is that employers need to look at that graduate labour market and make the case to people that teaching's a good profession for them to enter."

Professor Louden says the teaching shortage is a national problem as the competition for university graduates increases.

"Right across the country employers are going to need to pay teachers more."

"Pay's not the reason why people join teaching but you can't expect people to join the profession when they see it as poorly paid."