Teachers in the Republic are among the highest paid in states comprising the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and, at second level, enjoy much longer holidays than their counterparts in other industrialised nations, according to a new report.
But the number of teaching hours spent by second-level teachers in schools is close to the OECD average.
The report, Education at a Glance 2007, also reveals that spending on education in Ireland continues to lag well behind other OECD states despite our increasing wealth.
The OECD report puts Ireland in joint bottom place in an international league table which links spending on each second-level student to overall wealth.
Ireland is grouped with Mexico, Greece and the Slovak Republic, joint last of 30 OECD countries.
On pay, only Luxembourg, Switzerland, Korea, Scotland, Germany and Japan pay their teachers more than the Republic.
When they graduate, teachers in the Republic earn about €33,000 per year. In recent years, there has been a surge in demand for posts in teaching from school-leavers, with training courses for both primary and second-level teachers hugely oversubscribed.
Last night Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said starting salaries for Irish primary school teachers are about 2 per cent higher than the OECD average.
"However, after 15 years of experience, the typical salary level of an Irish primary teacher is about 24 per cent higher than the OECD average. Starting salaries for Irish second-level teachers are about the OECD average but rise to 18 per cent above the OECD average after 15 years of experience."
The report shows that the school year in the Republic, at just 167 days for second level, is (along with Italy) the shortest among 30 nations.
Long summer holidays are a throwback to an era in the 1930s when young boys were needed on the farm. But the continuance of such long holidays puts the Irish situation out of kilter with other OECD states, where the average school year is 184 days. In Korea and Denmark, schools are open for 220 and 200 days respectively.
But the actual teaching time for second-level teachers in the Republic - 735 hours per year - is well above the EU and OECD average. Teachers maintain that the work in the classroom represents only one element of a workload which includes class preparation and other tasks.
At primary level, the length of the school year, 183 days, is close to the EU average of 184 days.
John Carr of the INTO said the OECD survey showed how "Irish primary teachers are among the most productive, teaching more children for more hours than most other countries".
Fine Gael education spokeswoman Olwyn Enright said Fianna Fáil's "neglect of education is putting future Irish prosperity at severe risk".
She added: "This report highlights once again the lack of priority Fianna Fáil attaches to reforming and investing in the education sector.
"How on earth is Ireland going to develop, promote and maintain a world-class knowledge economy when the Fianna Fáil Government refuses to prioritise education?"
