Continuing to depress teachers' wages will 'harm quality of education in the UK', says head of OECD

A stark warning that continuing to depress teachers’ wages will harm the quality of education in UK schools has been delivered by one of the most influential men in world education.

Andreas Schleicher, head of education at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation - once dubbed “the most important man in English education” by former Education Secretary Michael Gove warned: “Watch out - keep teaching attractive.

“The quality of education can never exceed the quality of teaching.”

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.

“These uncompetitive salaries will make it much harder to attract the best candidates to the teaching profession,” the report added.

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Figures in the report show England and Scotland were amongst five nations where salaries fell by more than five per cent between 2008 and 2013. Only Greece and Hungary imposed higher pay cuts - of around 26 per cent. On average throughout the OECD, salaries showed a slight real terms rise.

Mr Schleicher, who earned his praise from Mr Gove as the man who collates evidence about the performance of all education systems - which the majority of governments use to help formulate their education policies, acknowledged that bonus and incentives on offer to teachers were a strength of the UK’s education system - lifting them to above the OECD average in their middle years of service.

However, his report argued: “In both England and Scotland, the starting salaries of pre-primary, primary and lower secondary teachers are below the OECD average.”

The Department for Education argued that salaries after 10 and 15 years’ experience in England were substantially above the OECD average, adding: “Headteachers now have the freedom to be able to pay good teachers more. This is in contrast to the old system which awarded teachers pay rises simply for time served, regardless of whether they were doing a good job.”

“Great headteachers are at the heart of this Government’s commitment to delivering educational excellence everywhere..”

As a result, a further squeeze on pay - as envisaged by Chancellor George Osborne - would, according to Mr Schleicher, would mean “it is going to be difficult to recruit top candidates”.

Mr Schleicher was critical of larger primary school class sizes in the UK. “Primary education classes are very big,” he added, “and that’s very unusual.”

Average class sizes in UK primary schools were of 24 pupils - compared to an average across the OECD of 21. In secondary schools, though, UK class sizes were smaller than the average - forcing UK teachers to spend more time on keeping control of the class.

Most education systems, though, he argued, spent money reducing class sizes at primary school level - while allowing them to rise at lower secondary.

In addition, he added, research showed that teachers in England had very little time to do anything other than teaching. “In Japan and Korea - where they have large classes like England, they use their resources to allow teachers to do other things than teaching (such as lesson preparation and marking).

“Large classes are correlated with less time spent on teaching and learning (in the class),” the report added, “and more time spent on keeping order in the classroom. One additional student added to an average-size class is associated with a 0.5 percentage point decrease in the time spent on teaching and learning activities.”

However, a major success story highlighted in the report is of the UK’s provision of pre-school education which was “such a different story to 10 years ago” when it was “very patchy”.

In terms of providing education for children from the age of three, the UK had moved “from well below the OECD average up to the very top”.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said that the OECD report had come “at an embarrassing time for George Osborne and Nicky Morgan”.

“What is clear is that entry salaries compare badly in all sectors in the UK with internationally which is obviously problematic for recruitment,” she added.