What everyone is saying about teacher pay
With the decline of teaching hitting the UK swiftly, there have been numerous ideas as to why this is occurring, with one being largely due to the pay bracket. According to the Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD): “Teachers’ salaries in England by 2017 had dropped by more than a tenth in the past decade.”
The pay for teachers is solely based on working from 08:40-15:30, with no acknowledgement for the hours spent marking, lesson planning or data collecting. While many are aware of this when studying at university or going through their Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), the percentage of people who do not realise the level of marking, lesson planning and data analysis is staggering.
Megan Anderson, a Newly Qualified Primary School teacher based in Rainham, Greater London, stated: “Before starting my PGCE, I had no idea that the workload would be so big; however, the workload soon became clear as I started the course and I quickly realised that it was going to be a lot of work.” An issue that has been found within the UK is recruiting teachers and actually keeping them onboard. In 2017, it was estimated that almost a quarter of teachers who had qualified in 2011 had left the profession due to the unknowing workload expected of them.
Miss Anderson soon after said: “Although we massively benefit from the 13 weeks off per year, I still think that overall I work at least as many hours, if not more, than an average job with 4-5 weeks holiday. I spend an average of at least 10 hours in school every day and work over half of my lunch and all of my break time.” After questioning whether she felt teachers were under paid for the hours they spend working, she replied: “I do feel that teachers are underpaid and there should be opportunities for overtime, e.g. when doing time consuming events such as parent consultation evenings, report writing or attending residentials.”
The crisis around the lack of wanting to teach and actually teaching is become more of a concern for the country. It is estimated that by 2025, the number of secondary school pupils in England would have risen by 15%, and from the academic year 2018/2019, the number of people starting their training in secondary schools was approximately 17% below target.
Donna Field, a subject leader for Whybridge Junior School, shared a similar opinion with Anderson, she stated: “I work approximately 55 hours a week, but this can increase dependent on the time of year. There are so many hidden parts to the job that some don’t even realise such as inputting data, updating displays, subject leader duties and school fundraising events, all of which are done in your own time which you don’t get paid for.”
Considering that OECD found newly qualified teachers’ salaries were 9-16% lower than the average graduates, it still has not sparked enough of a concern for teachers’ pay to be changed. After creating a survey on ‘SurveyMonkey’, I found that 70.97% of the 100 to take part believed that teachers are underpaid, and 74.19% believed they have more workload than other professions that are on the same wage. After questioning how much they believed the average teacher should be on, most answered between the bracket of £40,000 +, with one individual stating “at least a base line of £40,000 and then progressing from there each year”. Interestingly, 64% of people said they would not consider a job in teaching, nor has it ever been an interest to them.
Field continued to say: “I do believe we get a lot of time off school, but I would say I spend a fair bit of that working or going into school to make sure I’m prepared and on top of everything. This is a job that you can never fully switch off from, you are always thinking about your ‘to do’ list which is never ending!”
Maxine Rye, a primary school teacher based in Essex, finds balancing her workloads challenging and feels the pay against work correlation simply does not match. She stated: “As I work for a small school, I am a subject leader for three different subjects, one of which is a core subject. I am also the whole school phase leader and an NQT (newly qualified teacher) mentor. This is an addition to being in class full time. Despite my responsibilities within the school, I am not on UPS (upper pay scale) nor do I receive any TLR (teaching and learning responsibility) for my work load.”
Teachers have taken part in strikes against working long hours against low pay. Using the slogan ‘more than praise we need a raise,’ 2018 saw various 3-day strikes protesting the aspects of teaching they never signed up to do, such as working themselves for “13 hours a day,” says Rye.
Despite the above complaints based around teaching and the long hours they have to work, one statement they all made remained the same – they all have a strong passion for teaching. Rye stated: “I adore my class and I love new daily challenges, and I love the fact that I am shaping the future generation and that you can make a big difference in their lives.” However, she later claimed: “But I can’t see myself being a teacher and having a family. I feel as though it is something I will have to weigh up closer to the time, especially as my fiancé is a teacher too.”
The future of teaching is somewhat impossible to predict, with the rapid decline in the interest of teaching. The profession has now turned into a job consisting of long hours, days and weeks, while the pay shows only a small proportion of the hard work put into teaching today’s society.