Teacher pay

I get really tired of these arguements about pay etc. Back in 2007 yes the OECD report showed that Ireland had the 5th highest pay. However obviously there have been cuts since then so that will no longer be the case. I really wish people would read up on statistics and not quote individual ones they heard on the radio/tv/friend. It gives statistics a bad name.

Here are some possible reasons that teachers pay in Ireland is good.

For example: On Newstalk this morning I heard again that 83% of the education budget is spent on teachers salaries so they should be cut etc etc. However when I go and read up on it we actually don’t spend huge amounts of money on education in relation to other countries. Perhaps if we did then it would no longer be 83% on salaries!

We rank 13th on the table of expenditure on education in the OECD report (http://www.oecd.org/document/55/0,3746,en_2649_37455_46349815_1_1_1_37455,00.html) but again these tables are slightly skewed if the government is providing free fees for higher education. The UK is actually spending more than us on this table in spite of charging fees to higher level education.

We were spending 0 .5% as a percentage of total public expenditure above the OECD average on education including all levels in 2007 (13.5%) which wasn’t all that great given we were supposed to be pushing the knowledge economy. In the last four years we have slashed education so we can expect this to have dropped considerably. The highest spenders were Iceland and Norway. As a percentage of GDP, the EU average in 2007 was 5.2%. In Ireland we were spending 4.9%, below the average.

We are constantly told, we get paid too much (addressed above) and our holidays are too long. Rather than writing my own essay (I have read the reports from the OECD and EU) here is some explanation for our holidays being reasonable.

Quoted from: http://www.asti.ie/index.php?id=38&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=430

"In his article “Teachers’ summer shutdown should not be a closed book” (June 9th, 2011), Brian O’Connell refers to an OECD table which shows that Irish second-level teachers are expected to be present in schools for 735 hours per annum compared to the OECD average of between 1,116 hours and 1,192 hours. The ASTI wishes to point out the following:


For 12 out of the 14 countries represented in this table, the aggregate number of hours includes time spent teaching and time spent carrying out non-teaching duties. In the case of two out of the 14 countries – Ireland and New Zealand – time spent carrying out non-teaching duties is not included. As a consequence, the stated number of hours for Ireland and New Zealand are significantly lower than they are for other countries.


Irish second-level teachers are required to teach for 735 hours per annum which is well above the OECD and European average of 682 and 646.5 hours respectively.


In addition, Irish second-level teachers are required to be present in their schools for additional time and are required to carry out a wide range of non-teaching duties. These duties include administrative tasks required by law, lesson planning, subject and whole school planning, liaising with external personnel (e.g. special educational needs organisers and school inspectors), setting and marking exams, and meeting with parents. This does not include voluntary work such as organising musicals, coaching teams and running the photography club which usually take place outside the school day or at weekends. Irish schools and teachers are renowned for their commitment to extra-curricular activities and research has shown that these activities benefit young people both personally and educationally.


There is no evidence to suggest that Irish teachers spend less time at school than the OECD average. In addition to teaching 735 hours per year, Irish second-level teachers carry out the same or similar non-teaching duties as their OECD counterparts."


I'm a maths teacher and having been teaching the new syllabus I am constantly having to remind my students to do the background work on figures in the newspaper and to question the reliability of statistics as there may be other causes. We are constantly bombarded with individual quotes without the analysis that is produced in these type of reports. Its hilarious as I try to get students to enjoy statistics that the thing they enjoy most is tearing them apart (particularly from the newspapers).

Anyways I suppose thats a rant after listening to Mary O'Rourke this morning actually say that teachers salaries are untouchable (obviously we've had no pay cuts??) and that class size increases of 1 are not ideal but will be fine. For a former minister of education to think that a change of 1 in the pupil teacher ratio equates to 1 extra child per class is insane. Did she learn nothing as a minister? .....

Breathe