Saturday 22 January 2011

Teachers salaries: how does the UK compare?

Who would want to be a teacher? Not me, that is for sure. I would rather leave that task to other more dedicated people. Are we paying our teachers enough to look after those feral children now prowling around the wastelands of Britain?

Judging by OECD data, the nation's educators are doing OK. A starting salary is around $30,000 in purchasing power adjusted dollars. That is slightly above the OECD and EU19 averages, but somewhat lower than Germany, the US and Spain.

Polish teachers, on the other hand, are paid abysmally. Perhaps, they should come over here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that you say 'look after' rather than educate .

Jim said...

There's 2 ways of looking at this. One is that our teachers do OK by international standards. The other is to say, like you do, I wouldn't do their job for £30K. I agree with that, I wouldn't be a teacher with things as they are for £50K, let alone £30K.

HOWEVER. I blame the teachers themselves for the poor state of the system. The Left is almost 100% in charge of running the State system, from teacher training, pre-school, and right through to university. All the disciplinary problems could be solved at a stroke (literally) if the Left would allow it.

dearieme said...

The French figure takes my eye. I have a notion that French schoolteachers get contracts that keep their weekly teaching hours very low, which might explain it. Does anyone here know about that?

Anonymous said...

There is a point of view of course, that the teachers being in the forfront of the movement against dicipline and corporal punishment in schools, are simply getting what they asked for and for supposedly educated people, being so stupid and all, deserve.

Other than that, they are paid too much if judged by results. Let 'em all go to Luxembourg if they warrent such high salaries.

Anonymous said...

What is the difference between a teacher and a pizza?

A pizza can feed a family of four.