Teachers in Ireland among the best paid in the world, says OECD

Compared to adults with simply a high school-level of education attainment, those with a college degree earn about 76 percent more in income from employment, higher than the OECD average of 60 percent. But even that upper-grade advantage, long touted by education advocates, doesn’t necessarily give USA schools an edge, Schleicher said.

But after ten years of experience, teacher pay in England is above average for teachers in other developed countries, at £30,142 for secondary teachers compared with an OECD average of £25,959.

In boring down deeper on STEM education, the report found that only 17 percent of college graduates earned a degree in STEM fields, below the OECD average of 22 percent.

It also shows that statutory starting salaries are comparatively low for teachers in England at the start of their careers, at £18,356 for a secondary teacher in 2013 compared with an OECD average of £20,510.

But this does not include private universities, such as numerous most prestigious and most expensive universities in the US. That’s up sharply from an average of 40 to 50 percent a decade ago.

According to the report, in 2012, public spending on education in Ireland as a percentage of total public expenditure was 14.2pc, ahead of the OECD average of 11.6pc. However, the USA still ranks at the top when it comes to per-pupil-spending, especially in the post-secondary category.

OECD director of education and skills Andreas Schleicher said that overall, teachers’ salaries are “going backwards in real terms” in Scotland and England.

“He was speaking as the publication of the OECD’s annual Education at a Glance warned of a “considerable pay gap” between teachers and other similarly qualified workers” throughout the OECD. In the USA, educators spend 981 hours per year teaching compared to the OECD average of 694 hours, the difference of which is equivalent to a decrease in salary cost of $1,296.

John Bangs, senior consultant at Education global, the umbrella group for teaching unions across the world, said: “The OECD’s analysis makes it clear that there is high correlation between highly performing education systems and high levels of teachers’ pay”.

“The best potential teachers are finding jobs in other, better paid professions”, he said.

Though the District of Columbia had the highest enrollment (81 percent) of 4-year-olds in pre-primary programs in the United States in 2013, this rate was still below the OECD average of 85 percent.

While the OECD average for primary schools was 21, it was 27 in the United Kingdom, behind only China (37), Chile (29) and Israel (28).

“There is increasing awareness of the key role that early childhood-education plays in the cognitive and emotional development of the young”, the report states.

Because of gains in other countries, Schleicher said it would be “hard” for the U.S.to attain its goal to become the nation with the highest proportion of 25- to 34-year-old university graduates by 2020.

The Obama administration has made prekindergarten a priority of their education agenda in the last couple of years, including in the president’s push to make early childhood education free for all low- and middle-income families.