Luxembourg is top of the pile for teacher earnings, with research showing they earn six times more than SA teachers.
|||Cape Town - Luxembourg may be top of the pile for teacher earnings - teachers there earn more than six times what South African teachers get paid, according to new research by an international finance firm and a local think tank.
South African teachers are increasingly moving overseas to the greener pastures of increased salaries, smaller class sizes and professional development.
The Gauteng City-Region Observatory studied data from UBS, a global firm which provides financial services, which compared the earnings of primary school teachers around the world which had showed significant disparities.
Out of the 72 cities, Johannesburg was at position 43 with Luxembourg in the top spot and Cairo at the bottom.
The teachers’ net income for the year was
* Luxembourg – $88 200 (R796 086)
* Rome – $22 100 (R199 473)
* Johannesburg – $14 400 (R129 973)
* Santiago de Chile – $12 300 (R111 019)
* Cairo – $1 300 (R11 734)
UBS used data on public school teachers who had been in the profession for about 10 years and were married with two children.
Darlington Mushongera, a research economist at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, said there was not enough data to monitor the teachers who leave the system.
“There’s a demand for skilled teachers from Africa in other regions that are offering things that they want.”
Mushongera said the observatory had looked at the data to assess how teachers were being paid compared to those in other regions to address challenges around teacher attrition.
The observatory’s conclusions were:
* Retaining teachers at the primary or foundation phase is of the highest importance.
* Teacher attrition may be further exacerbated by the shortage of primary-level teachers.
* There is a need to improve teacher wages and provide opportunities for professional development elsewhere.
* There are limited data sources which track teacher movement from South Africa, and government needs to scale up the monitoring process.
Research by the Department of Basic Education had shown that “a minimum of 20 000 teachers need to be replaced every year” and it was currently producing about 6 000 each year.
michelle.jones@inl.co.za
Cape Times