How much are teachers worth?

[TheHiveMind]

Teachers who are just starting need to start at the bottom like in any industry.
As they collect years of experience under their belts, their salary should rise.
25 - 30k pm? They would be earning more than 90% of IT professionals I know. And IT pplz don't get holidays. Try 4 years with about 6 days away from work in total. I entered the IT industry on 5.5k net, after 4 yrs its risen (recently) to 11k net. I also have to be on call on weekends, and don't get paid overtime.

 

[adelp]

TBH that is a problem across the board. I have seen AMPLE older teachers that were utterly useless and couldn't care less about teaching. It has to do with the persons own mentality rather than their respective age. The fact that they are old and have been teaching for a long time means one of two things: thay are committed to their job and enjoy what they are doing OR they are too useless and lazy to find another job and keep on torturing students with their lack of teaching ability.

I will agree that there are a fair amount of airheads that are currently teaching and probably shouldn't be...but that has always been the case.

+1000

Or they are just hanging around for pension time.....

Maybe they should start a beter system for selecting them before they study, now you get the crazies getting the job because they studied for it http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=149116

 

[Messugga]

Teachers who are just starting need to start at the bottom like in any industry.
As they collect years of experience under their belts, their salary should rise.
25 - 30k pm? They would be earning more than 90% of IT professionals I know. And IT pplz don't get holidays. Try 4 years with about 6 days away from work in total. I entered the IT industry on 5.5k net, after 4 yrs its risen (recently) to 11k net. I also have to be on call on weekends, and don't get paid overtime.

You're getting ripped off, in my opinion. I guess depends on your field in IT though.

I agree with the sentiment that teachers should start with a minimum salary, and have it increase as they gain more experience, which I think is exactly how it works now. Apparently senior lecturers for Teaching modules at UJ, earn around R30 000 per month which is vastly more than the South African average as well as a lot of lecturers in other fields at universities.
I don't really feel they have that much to complain over. Not terribly hard work, not incredibly long hours and they're pretty much guaranteed a job once they're done studying.

 

[Zenbaas]

I used to hang out with some buddies by a place (CPUT teaching college in Mowbray)where teachers study trying to pick up chicks. They are the most immature bunch I have ever met. Most of them had so many issues over self esteem as well!! I would never want them teaching my kids. They were all wanting to get jobs a private schools too.

I don't think people who can't get a grip on their own life should be teaching others who are in a vulnerable stage of development. There should be serious pschyc testing done before you are allowed to be a teacher. The old school teachers from my younger days were way different than todays Mxiting. Hannah Montana like bunch of school teachers. At least some of the kids will have eye candy.

Older teachers should be paid more, to weed out the ones who are looking for money and don't have an interest in helping kids. It also seems that todays young graduates are less interested in extra mural activities.

You're getting ripped off, in my opinion. I guess depends on your field in IT though.

I agree with the sentiment that teachers should start with a minimum salary, and have it increase as they gain more experience, which I think is exactly how it works now. Apparently senior lecturers for Teaching modules at UJ, earn around R30 000 per month which is vastly more than the South African average as well as a lot of lecturers in other fields at universities.
I don't really feel they have that much to complain over. Not terribly hard work, not incredibly long hours and they're pretty much guaranteed a job once they're done studying.

So compelling....maybe I should switch careers

 

[rwenzori]

You're obviously not in education...teachers work weekends and often go on courses during their holidays. There's no such thing as sitting on the beach sans ringing phone etc.

I will admit though that the enterprising and competent teacher can make use of all that time. One I know pulls about R300k/annum at a private school, PLUS about R250k/annum from prescribed textbooks she has co-authored. That's over half a bar a year, which is OK I reckon.

 

[Paul_S]

My fiancée is a teacher at a large, well know private school near Irene, PTA.

Pay:
In my opinion teachers are underpaid compared to the corporate environment.
15K-20K per month (including benefits) is considered a decent salary for someone with 5-10 years experience and one or even two degrees in the teaching field. That's for a high school teacher.
Even teachers with 15+years of experience and the relevant qualifications seldom earn over 20K per month at private schools.

Leave:
Teachers get more leave but my fiancée spends about half her leave preparing for the next school term.
So while it may seem that they get 3 months paid leave per annum it's actually closer to about 6 weeks including weekends. That's about 30 days per annum which is better than most industries.

Stress/work load:
From what I've seen in the lives of teachers (3 other teaching friend + my fiancée) they work extremely hard. I've seen my fiancée working until late at night setting and marking exam papers, writing reports, creating portfolios for IEB moderation, etc.
It makes my 9 to 5 job look like a walk in the park and I often have to help her.
She handles over 300 high school students and has to know each student personally.

Then there is always school politics where teachers are plain nasty to each other. Some of them seem to have permanent PMS.

End of school terms can be really stressful for a teacher and my fiancée often gets sick near the end so she ends up spending the first two weeks of her holidays recovering from nasty colds/flu.

The other thing that most people don't realise is that most teachers are forced to take extramural activities like sport, drama or music. That means spending afternoons running around sports grounds in the sun blowing a whistle, organising sport events, etc.
It also sometimes means late nights when the drama or music department participate in an event. Getting home at 22:00 or even 23:00 is not uncommon.

Conclusion:
If you ever think that teachers have an easy life just marry one and you'll soon change your opinion.
I'm sticking to IT. The leave may suck but the pay and workload is good compared to professional teaching.

 

[Picard]

My fiancée is a teacher at a large, well know private school near Irene, PTA.


Conclusion:
If you ever think that teachers have an easy life just marry one and you'll soon change your opinion.
I'm sticking to IT. The leave may suck but the pay and workload is good compared to professional teaching.

Excellent post and excellent 1000th post.

 

[Gazer]

My fiancée is a teacher at a large, well know private school near Irene, PTA.

Pay:
In my opinion teachers are underpaid compared to the corporate environment.
15K-20K per month (including benefits) is considered a decent salary for someone with 5-10 years experience and one or even two degrees in the teaching field. That's for a high school teacher.
Even teachers with 15+years of experience and the relevant qualifications seldom earn over 20K per month at private schools.

Leave:
Teachers get more leave but my fiancée spends about half her leave preparing for the next school term.
So while it may seem that they get 3 months paid leave per annum it's actually closer to about 6 weeks including weekends. That's about 30 days per annum which is better than most industries.

Stress/work load:
From what I've seen in the lives of teachers (3 other teaching friend + my fiancée) they work extremely hard. I've seen my fiancée working until late at night setting and marking exam papers, writing reports, creating portfolios for IEB moderation, etc.
It makes my 9 to 5 job look like a walk in the park and I often have to help her.
She handles over 300 high school students and has to know each student personally.

Then there is always school politics where teachers are plain nasty to each other. Some of them seem to have permanent PMS.

End of school terms can be really stressful for a teacher and my fiancée often gets sick near the end so she ends up spending the first two weeks of her holidays recovering from nasty colds/flu.

The other thing that most people don't realise is that most teachers are forced to take extramural activities like sport, drama or music. That means spending afternoons running around sports grounds in the sun blowing a whistle, organising sport events, etc.
It also sometimes means late nights when the drama or music department participate in an event. Getting home at 22:00 or even 23:00 is not uncommon.

Conclusion:
If you ever think that teachers have an easy life just marry one and you'll soon change your opinion.
I'm sticking to IT. The leave may suck but the pay and workload is good compared to professional teaching.

Exactly correct. People outside of the profession have no idea what is involved...classroom contact is about 20% of the job.

 

[Gazer]

I am not very fond of teachers (Picard excluded).

In my books, policemen and nurses should earn better than teachers.

Except teachers are the ones "educating" our future generations. A lot of parents expect teachers to do their parenting for them as well. It's a tough job when done correctly.