Do you think teachers are paid too little?

I think it would be reasonable if conditions were better. As they're not teachers are having to fill in gaps as they're short staffed, work with too little resources and support staff, carry out duties beyond their remit because things like CAHMs have been cut to the bone, not have time at work to plan so it bleeds into evenings/weekends/holidays which makes the hourly pay crap, children who need additional support aren't getting it and the stress of trying to include these children without neglecting others. Some subjects as well just can't compete pay wise, why any comp Sci grad would be a teacher for example is very confusing.

Honestly I think teachers pay is fine. I do however think the conditions they are expected to work under (hours, stress, constant micromeddling by government, inadequate funding of schools) are intolerable. Still I think it would be better to improve conditions than up pay people enough that they are willing to tolerate them.

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Yes. Massive work load, expected to be everything to everyone during school hours so need a really broad skill set, and real term pay decreases.

It makes me want to scream that on mumsnet, of all places, people don't see the value of a decently funded education system for the future of our kids.

Bloody hell primary teaching isn’t “much easier”.

Primary teachers are miracle workers and god knows how they put up with the ridiculous marking expectations and children who will end up out of mainstream before they get to secondary but not before they’ve been through several years of primary.

We need to be thinking about paying salaries that are good enough to attract and keep the best teachers to educate our children. And also fighting for schools to be properly maintained and resourced.
I genuinely think that if more people had a true idea of what goes on in schools they would be shocked.

FE is paid terribly. I did some FE work and left as the pay was so atrocious. I am paid more now in a pretty easy and basic job.

I left teaching because of the pay!
i was teaching in FE on 0.8 (the other 0.2 was unpaid, as it was time to do an (admittedly) paid for course in ESOL, which was classed as professional development (you have to demonstrate pro dev constantly). The course, I felt, was lip service. My existing, recognised and higher level course already covered the content.

I walked out with just over £1,100 a month! The pension is hefty and has 2 deductions (one for SERPS). Contrary to popular opinion my holidays were normal (23 days) if I wanted any half term or summer off, I used my own holidays.

Planning lessons, printing resources, getting on top of the exam content and marking scheme and knowing the scheme of work and how it fit into the curriculum was also done (in part) in my own time. I acknowledge if you reach the same subject for many years (and are lucky that the exam board/ exam content barely changes) then the planning on my side would be reduced a lot.

pay-rises were blocked using things that you could not control, e.g high student absence (demographically and the fact these were the first 16-18 year olds made to retake their English GCSEs after failing so were not hugely engaged in the idea to start with was the issue). It was deemed the lessons (that the teacher planned) must be at fault for not engaging them enough!

I had an undergraduate and post graduate loan to pay - both necessary to have my job! And my youngest still needed wrap around care and I had travel costs. I have gone back to cleaning it pays comparatively much more.

Teaching (without a huge time served or extra responsibilities) IS underpaid and carries long hours and lots of extra responsibilities (safeguarding/respect etc etc) that cause lots of stress.

However, at uni, i did a primary school placement, and I must say the 2 aren’t comparative in my eyes.

Primary teaching is;

• much easier

• less stressful,
• requires less subject knowledge
• can be planned with just an overview of a subject, as for instance if you’re teaching shapes you know the content back to front and doesn’t require a post grad degree to also pay for.

So I’m less convinced that, it is underpaid as I feel it’s almost on a par with childcare setting responsibilities personally.

And TAs whose pay is rarely talked about are being totally exploited for their level of pay.

Teachers and support staff are paid shockingly poorly for the services they provide. Looking at comments on forums and local news sites shows me that generally speaking the general public do not have the faintest idea how difficult these roles are, and how much is expected of them. I 100% support the strikes. At a nation we need to value our teachers and support staff (without support staff, schools would fall apart but they barely get a mention!)

I don’t think that the pay is that bad, but the conditions are.

I was a teacher for 20+ years. I now work for the local authority in a related role. I am now paid far less. Teaching, especially secondary teaching , is not badly paid.

They are paid too little for their role.
The talk of teachers going to foodbanks and being really poor is bullshit.

On one particularly stressful day, I worked out how much I was earning for the hours I was doing, and worked out that I was on less than minimum wage. I’m not a teacher anymore!

Not in all cases n subjects. My husband started as an ECT in a very challenging secondary school. He is on less than £28k. I don't think teachers could be ever be paid enough to be honest. What they are expected to deal with is often horrific.

No. Teachers definitely are not paid enough - just because some people manage on less is irrelevant. You don't waste all that money on education and training to scrape by. That's not really an enticing prospect. If your goal in life is just to have enough to get by I don't know why you would choose a job that requires considerable personal investment in education and training, loads of stress, and constant scrutiny. It should be regarded as one of the most important professions in the country and paid accordingly. I don't see how the recruitment crisis will ever be resolved when the people we need can earn more doing something less taxing.

Doesn't really matter if i think the salary is too low, there's a recruitment crisis in schools. Not enough people staying in teaching, or training to become teachers, because there are far easier jobs that pay more. On that basis the gov need to do something radical quickly, either pay more or make conditions much more appealing. Otherwise there will be less and less teachers.

Yes, of course they are.
Without teachers, without education, where would this country be. People are earning far more not getting a degree and not making the same contribution to the future generations. So of course they should earn more. They are responsible for our young, their influence in society is immense. My daughters teachers were working around the clock during lockdown because not only were they in school teaching the most vulnerable students, they went home and gave the students at home their support as well. It’s the little things teachers do, like message on weekends to remind the kids to go out and look up at the night sky because the planets are aligning, recommending good books, taking an interest in the children’s personal interests. It’s utterly mind blowing how much a teacher has an impact on our lives - I still remember mine. To think someone even asks the question, do they deserve better. Yes they do, they 100% do.

Does that mean I am loving the strike action. No. It’s a real problem for so many parents. We nearly lost our income over it, which would have meant possibly losing our home because of the COL crisis. It’s a dire, dire time and everyone is struggling so much. We got through covid, now we are trying to get through this. My kids have lost so much education compared to other generations it’s unreal. But I blame the government, full stop, end of story.

Yes I think they are underpaid (as indeed are TAs) for the job they do and the stress that comes with it. I also think it's unfair to make the comparison with nurses although I don't think it's a coincidence that both are viewed as 'female' professions and both have been underpaid for so long.

I am an ex teacher. It's all the other rubbish that goes with it. Teaching is no longer the main part of the job. Counselling students, behaviour experts, dealing with rude parents, sen specialists as not enough sen schools, constant scrutiny, unnecessary admin, students doing assignments every 5 minutes that then need marking. Sacrificing time with own families by weekends spent planning.
Education is surviving on current teachers doing hours of unpaid overtime and spending their own money on resources. Before I left I worked out that for all the hours I did, I'd have been better paid working for a supermarket and that was factoring in doing no work over the holidays.
I would keep pay the same if all the other stuff was removed, otherwise a serious increase is needed

In real terms, teachers' salaries have fallen (and they weren't exactly huge to begin with). This, coupled with the fact that the job is one of huge importance and responsibility, leads me to conclude that they aren't paid enough. It is a bloody hard job . . . And no, I'm not a teacher!

This. Our school is advertising for TAs and the responsibility for the wage is frankly terrifying. And a good couple of pounds less than you earn as a barista locally (not dissing baristas in any way!)

Teachers are also paid too little as a PP said they can't all move to cheaper areas! So while £28k is a good salary in some places it really isn't enough to live on in others

I don't think they are underpaid. I also don't think their importance of a primary school teacher is comparable to a nurse as PP said

How would you exist in a world where nurses couldn’t read? Or calculate doses? Or understand basic biology. Or anything really.

I think teachers need a decent pay increase as do TA’s. as many other services have experienced cuts/closures schools are taking responsibility for more and more
I think what is expected of TA’s now is so much more than it used to be
Also the government needs to backfill the amount of each school budget taken out to fund the last pay increase for teachers.

I don‘t think it‘s necessarily about pay per se, but it seems like there are fewer TAs (certainly in secondary) than are needed, so all the extra work is done by teachers. The government has consistently underfunded not only schools generally but in particular SEN, meaning there are fewer SEN places and those children who should really be in an SEN school are in mainstream. This has a detrimental effect on both the kids with SEN, the kids who are almost managing but just need a little bit of extra support (but can‘t access it because the kids with more pressing needs get the assistance) as well as the other kids.

I say this as a parent of both a child with SEN (who has finally got a place in an SEN school after a long battle with the LA) and very able kids with no SEN, but who have kids in their classes who really should be somewhere that can offer them more support.

Teachers (who often don‘t have the necessary skills) are having to try and cater to all these kids, differentiate work more than would be typical and ensure that every child, regardless of their ability is coping. I know that they would have to do that anyway to a certain extent, but in reality it is more than should be typical and is just exacerbated by the lack of funding and the lack of practical support in the classroom.
It also makes it a very difficult environment to work in, coupled with kids who (backed by their parents) believe they can get away with anything. On of my DCs is in what is reported to be a really good school, and even in her classes there are kids throwing things at teachers, making them cry, constantly talking back and knowing full well there‘s little the teacher can do.

I know a few teachers who go home and then spend a lot of their evening working. In a lot of jobs, you can just switch off when you get home, but I think for a lot of teachers, this isn‘t the case.

So for me, it‘s not so much about the amount of money they bring home, it‘s more the disparity between what they are expected to do and put up with in the work environment, compared to what the government thinks they are worth. But it will backfire soon enough, many teachers are leaving the profession for their own well-being (and I don‘t blame them), but soon they will struggle to recruit enough new teachers unless they can redress working conditions, SEN needs and funding.