To think teaching should be one of the highest paid jobs?

[donutque]

Not a teacher, but my logic seems sound.

I’ve seen plenty of threads / comments on here that question if teachers are really that underpaid (often quoting 28k as a starting salary) which seems like a strange race to the bottom.

I work in finance and wouldn’t take a job for a low salary, I’m in my twenties and I’m compensated well. I believe I deserve that, I name my price when I go for jobs and won’t accept lower. This is because I’m 1) qualified 2) have a skill and the market demands me, I am in short supply.

I can see a response I may get is that
teachers, whilst good, aren’t necessarily the most intelligent or talented / high quality individuals. But IS IT ANY WONDER?! The top talent graduates and gets sucked in by the big 4 / investment banks / magic circle all because of money (I promise you that it is rare that a child just bloody loves debits and credits, has a passion for selling stock, or checking the bank statement matches the p&l) Of course, some top grads go into teaching but this is usually because of their personality type (desire to give back / do good / love of children). It’s not the common occurrence. They certainly aren’t doing it for the big pay off.

So if teachers started on, let’s say, £30k but upon qualifying were paid £50k, with a teacher with 5-10 years service being on 60/70/80/90k (no extra responsibility), I guarantee applications would be flooded. Teaching would be a career that is attractive. You’d have the best teachers, which is important. Not just for basic education but teachers are what gets your little offspring into university to become the next doctor, lawyer, politician, plumber, accountant and so on. Teachers are LITERALLY the backbone of society.

Scandi countries document well how education leads to greater GDP, and a basic understanding of economics will explain why paying teachers well is far more beneficial to the economy than anyone who says “but how do we afford it?!”

so, AIBU to think teaching should be one of the highest paid jobs?

History is also very biased, how much is it true? The grandiosity of the French empire was taught non stop, but you'd had 1 chapter on the Atlantic slave trade, colonisation or world history. Talk about education. Brainwashing.

I agree. I wouldn’t do it for the money currently on offer, no way.

Nonsense.

Guys, you live in a capitalist country. You get the good, and the bad of the system chosen by your government.

The day teachers will invent new inventions, is the day they will get more money. Teaching the same exact thing for 40 years isn't rocket science.

It is true. From Japan to Kenya, teachers tend to ignore bullying. Unless your parents have $$$$$$$

No the entry requirements are far too low to deserve a very high salary. You have primary school teacher who have scrapped a C in maths.

Definitely! I could never handle it.

Totally agree (not a teacher)
Starting salary is close to minimum wage
Its so low compared to other European countries

I don't think teachers are that badly paid relative to others. Particularly if they do some private tutoring on the side (they charge £30-£50 per hour in my area).

I went into one of those highly paid jobs in investment banking. Yes, people trousered 6, 7 and 8 figure bonuses (calculated as a percentage of fees they'd personally earned that year).

It's not a breeze. You're expected to work all hours and regularly cancel holidays or family events with no notice. I worked 40 hours without a break when I was seven months' pregnant. You had to go and present to company boards as a slightly clueless new graduate without the time to prepare properly. People with families rarely saw their kids. The money was great but it came at a cost and mass redundancies were common.

I have friends who are teachers. They work hard too but I question whether their jobs are that much more stressful. They also get better pensions, longer holidays and better job security. It's swings and roundabouts and I think some may have rose-coloured glasses about what's it like to work in the private sector at times.

I'm sorry you got bullied. That's shit.
But teachers are not the lead cause. Nasty horrible people are the lead cause.

I didn’t RTFT
I am agreeing with the opening statement , that teachers should be much better paid

No teachers wages don’t need to go up so significantly. The system needs to be changed.
The amount of work needs to be massively reduced and teachers need to be able to spend the bulk of their time planning or teaching, without wasting their time producing huge amounts of data.
There needs to be many more, better paid, support staff. Most pastoral staff are paid minimum wage and that needs to change now.

I think we need to get away from the idea the only badly paid people doing a hard job in this country are teachers and nurses.

I'm a teacher and I would say a good one but I am not a magician. I am lucky because my dh is private sector and earns accordingly so I would settle for a properly funded education sector. Money for all the support services, more Ed Psychs, more TA's smaller class sizes, more non contact time. I need time to do my job well and I need the behaviour in my school to be manageable enough to do my job. Many teachers are struggling to pay their bills, secure housing and pay for childcare so for those teachers I agree we need higher wages as well.

Agree. But also - the conditions and the nonsense teachers put up with. Sheer lack of respect from children and teachers (never mind press) and yes I know it's a small proportion but small enough to finish off some teaching careers when that teacher can go elsewhere and earn more money for a heck of a lot less stress. Public service money needs reallocating and priorities reassessing.

Parents - not teachers that should say. I'm staggered how some parents talk to teachers.

This is not true. I taught a STEM subject. I got outstanding results. It’s just a myth

Hmm.. DD with her ten A GCSEs and her five A A levels and her degree from Oxford is an excellent teacher. And many of her colleagues are similarly well qualified.

This is spot on. I think teachers don't really need a massive salary. But if all of the above was in place, the job would be attractive. I am a teacher.

What have you based this assertion on?

Halt politicians pay rise, give it to others

I think teaching conditions should be much better and I think teachers should be paid well.
But I don't think teachers should be more highly paid than other professions just because they are in the public eye.
There are lots of other hard working people out there holding up society and getting equally shafted on pay and conditions but we're not aware of them because they don't have a collective voice.

Our school is short staffed not because their isn’t teachers that want the job but because they can’t afford to employ them.
more money is defo needed but not all in to wages.

Of course they should be paid more. Appreciate the teachers on here feeling the money would be better spent on the kids and improving working conditions - of course, you are lovely people - but the salary should be higher as well.

I knew my subject and I was good at teaching it. OK, I got pretty fed up with record keeping and predicting grades, and the endless marking - but what really did my head in was non-stop aggressive and confrontational behaviour, plus showing off to be interesting...I left, and didn't miss it. Shame, because the nice kids were lovely, real pleasure to teach.

I have long believed that all public sevtor workers should be the most highly paid and highly revered, as they provide the bedrock on which society depends. The bin men, cleaners, carers, nurses etc. All of them are utterly necessary for a civilised society. I have no idea why we take them all so badly for granted, abd value them so little. I grew up with parents who made sure I understood how society worked and how much we owe the people who do those jobs. It seems to have been forgotten in just a couple of generations.