Post by Focus on Jun 25, 2013 19:29:26 GMT
Teachers in England are some of the best paid in the world, new figures revealed today.
They receive around £40 for every hour spent actually teaching in classrooms, the sixth highest in the developed world.
The UK’s teachers are also some of the youngest on the planet, with 60 per cent under the age of 40, compared to an average of 40 per cent worldwide.
Classroom : Teachers in England receive the equivalent of £40 for every hour spent teaching, leaving them ranked sixth overall by the OECD
Age : UK teachers are also younger than most other countries, with almost two thirds under the age of 40
A new league table published by the OECD reveals the ‘stark contrast’ between the UK and other developed countries.
On average a teacher in England was paid the equivalent of £27,831 in 2011 while spending 684 hours teaching.
Luxembourg pays its teachers the best, with the average salary for after 15 years in the classroom standing at £58,718.
On average they spend 810 hours teaching, equivalent to an hourly pay of £72.49.
Other countries with a higher hourly rate than England include Denmark, Germany, the United States and Canada.
But the £40-an-hour is much higher than other major European countries including Netherlands (£35.35) Spain (£29.53) and France (£22.27).
English teachers start their career with higher than average salaries, the study shows, although after more than a decade this begins to fall back.
Pay : Teachers in Luxembourg are the best paid which their Slovak counterparts receive the least
Time : Teachers in Chile spend 1,120 hours-a-year teaching, much higher than the rest of the OECD's list of countries
On average, an English primary teacher’s starting salary is around £19,000, compared with an average across OECD countries of around £18,700.
After 10 years this reaches around £27,831, much higher than the OECD average of £23,976.
But the report adds that in England a teacher’s salary at the top of the scale does not increase after 10 years’ experience, so it eventually falls behind an OECD average of around £29,500.
Around three-fifths (60 per cent) of England’s primary school teachers workforce are under the age of 40.
The Education At A Glance study adds that almost a third (31 per cent) of UK primary teachers are under 30, against an OECD average of 13 per cent.
The Education At A Glance study adds that almost a third (31 per cent) of UK primary teachers are under 30
This puts the UK in ‘stark contrast’ with other countries, where the teaching population is much older.
In Germany, 71 per cent of primary teachers are at least 40 years old, along with 85 per cent in Italy and 72 per cent in Sweden.
The OECD says: ‘The relatively young teaching force in the UK stands in stark contrast to the situation in many European countries where inflexible employment conditions coupled with declining youth populations have led to ageing teacher populations.’
In total, there are 11 EU countries where 60 per cent or more of the primary teaching workforce are 40 or older.
The OECD’s wide-ranging annual study looks at every area of education, from early years through to university.
It reveals that England’s schoolchildren spend long hours in the classroom.
Pupils receive on average just under 8,000 hours of lesson time during their primary and first years of education, compared with the OECD average of 7,751.
Virtually all of the time English pupils spend in the classroom is compulsory.
Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s deputy director for education and skills, said there is a link between the time pupils spend in the classroom and results.
‘Learning time actually does matter,’ he added.
[Teachers in England are some of the best paid in the world, new figures revealed today] - Well maybe they should spend more time teaching our children about their heritage and less time moaning ffs! - Fx
