Sir, – Mary White (Letters, November 4th) on the current Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) issue with the Department of Education, deserves a response. She suggests that the UK system is working well, with UK teachers spending longer hours in the classroom for less pay.
In fact, Irish second-level teachers spend more hours on compulsory instruction, a total of 935 hours, above the EU average of 895 and the OECD average of 916 hours. As a result of Brexit and the collapse of sterling the rate of pay for young UK teachers is now below that of their Irish colleagues.
However, newly-qualified UK teachers in large cities ie London receive an allowance bringing their salaries, even with the fall of sterling, above that of their Irish counterparts with a starting salary of €31,287 compared to Irish teachers of €31,009.
While promoting the UK system, Ms White states, “I am not advocating we follow the same route”.
Neither would I follow the UK model of education. In the latest PISA results on reading, Ireland was rated seventh while the UK was rated 23rd and in maths Ireland was 20th while the UK failed to make it into the top 20 countries of the OECD.
– Yours, etc,
Dr DAVID O’GRADY,
Killarney.