Starting Salaries For UK Teachers Among Lowest In Europe

The starting salary for teachers in the UK are among the lowest in Europe, according to findings of a wide-ranging new report.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that initial wages in England and Scotland are below the OECD average.

Teachers in countries such as Portugal, Ireland and, outside of Europe, Korea start on more pay.

The report also found that the UK has some of the largest primary school class sizes in Europe, while England has the highest average undergraduate tuition fees in the industrialised world.

English undergraduates paid just under £6,000 in annual tuition fees in the 2013-14 year, with students in the US (£5,300) and Japan (£3,300) behind them.

It also placed the average class size for primary schools in the UK at 27 (higher than the OECD average of 21) and at 20 in secondary schools (below the average of 24).

While bonuses and allowances in England and Scotland boost the salaries above the OECD average, Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s director of education and skill, said that salaries “going backwards in real terms”.

He said: “Pretty much for the first time in history, the last 10 years have not been so great for teachers in terms of getting more pay,” he said.

“Both Scotland and England are actually going backwards in real terms when you look at the salary between 2005 and 2013.”

Despite the recession during the period, many countries such as Germany and the United States increased teachers’ pay in real terms.

Mr Schleicher said: “If you look at this in absolute terms, when you compare teachers’ starting salaries, they are clearly not attractive in England.

“What the UK does well, in our judgement, is it has quite a flexible pay scale with lots of incentive and benefits. If you add all of that up, teachers in the UK – compared to teachers in other countries, not relative to workers with similar qualifications – come out better.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education told the BBC that “great teachers are at the heart of this government’s commitment to delivering educational excellence everywhere.

"This is why we are not only tackling excessive teacher workload but have also given head teachers the freedom to pay good teachers more, meaning the best teachers can access greater rewards earlier in their careers.”