There is no doubt that teaching is a tough job.

A teacher has to tailor their output to 30 individuals all of whom are at quite different starting points. These people are motivated to learn in a multitude of different ways, while some of them are reticent to learn at all. There are more variables in play than almost any other position.

Yet anyone who applies for a teaching job knows why they are doing so. They want to teach, to educate, to allow others to make the most of their potential.

Very few things can detract from that vocational pull, but it seems the current education system is finding a way to test it. Writing about the subject for TES, Fergal Roche, former headteacher and chief executive officer of The Key, positioned teaching jobs as some of the most valuable jobs in the UK and as a country said we should be trying to motivate, engage, support and reward teachers.

He pointed out how troubling it was, therefore, that the recent State of Education Survey conducted by The Key and Ipsos Mori revealed that as many as 65 per cent of school leaders said the teaching profession was now unattractive to those choosing a career and 82 per cent said morale was worse than it had been in 2010.

These results have been borne out among a number of recent union findings, the latest of which has come from the Educational Institute of Scotland. It's own survey eluded to the fact many teachers are finding the increased level of paperwork thrust on them is detrimental to their morale as it stops them from doing what they love - teaching.

Boosting low levels of morale is a problem many leaders have to deal with in all types of business and there is no easy answer, but in the case of the teaching profession, surely the removal of the barriers that lead to low morale will be easier than elsewhere.

Mr Roche said: "Many teachers cite rising workloads and increasing pressures of the assessment cycle as the key reasons for low morale. Every new teacher should be taught a rigorous approach to time management, and schools need protocols to enable teachers to prioritise high value teaching activity over competing demands on their time. 

"I'm not talking about a book on time management, but a thorough, mentored, programme to teach them the disciplines that will help them to avoid burnout, particularly in the early years, when so many teachers leave the profession."

Russell Hobby, general secretary of heads' union the NAHT, suggested that the government needs to stop to check the effect of its reforms are having on working conditions in the classroom.

Speaking at the union's annual conference he said two or three changes a year should be the maximum, rather than the ripping up the whole national curriculum.

People will always be drawn to teaching jobs, which tap into fundamental human needs and qualities, but why should the next generation of graduates have to fight low morale to do something they thought they loved? The brightest, most organised and most persuasive candidates will survive and even thrive, but why take that talent for granted? Would those in charge of any other profession settle for it?

What are your experiences while working in the classroom? Has reform after reform clouded your love of teaching? Is teaching still the primary task of somebody who works in a Darryl Mydat