But, as I already wrote, Ireland has a higher cost of living. So inn real terms, ratio of pay to GDP, the 3rd graph, Ireland is average and behind NZ.
Irish teachers (with 15 years experience) are paid a ratio of 1.17 of GDP per capita, in NZ it is 1.61 the OECD average is 1.33
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/34/33671263.xls

long story short, NZ teachers get more in real terms, Irish teachers get less than average.

(And before this is jumped on, yes its a decent wage, and yes we’re lucky to have a job)

Before this turns into the usual teacher bashing here are the facts. Yes Irish teachers earn more than other european countries BUT we live in a country with a very high cost of living. When this is factored in, Irish teachers earn slightly less than the OECD average. Irish primary schools have the largest class size in Europe. Irish primary teachers work more hours than most European countries.
These are the facts, not opinion or hyperbole
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/teacher-pay-around-the-world/

Consider, nat ratio is 29 children per teacher, this is the min allowed therefore if any class falls below 29 another class/es have to increase by the same amount! eg class 1 has 25 kids (-4 on nat ratio) class 2 has to have 29 4=33 kids! Otherwise even if you are down by 1 child the school looses a teacher!!!
Crazy to increase this ratio, people need to understand this ratio better, most schools will have to have big classes 30 just to maintain the current ratio

This is nothing new, we’ve been complaining about it for years yet the Government doesn’t seem to care at all. They have done nothing to address this…at least nothing that shows on ground level here.

We can’t hire any new teachers as we can’t even afford to pay the ones we have. We can’t have the best paid teachers in Europe AND have low class sizes.

The quality of teacher matters more than the size of the class. Plenty of people older than me were educated in classes of 35 to 40 pupils. I can’t wait to see the INTO study into the average European teacher’s pay.

As for ways to cut the education pay bill, how about making the correction of exam papers, the supervision of exams and the supervision of pupils in corridors/yards part of a teacher’s job description so millions are saved this way.

I’d say this is just rubbish data published by the INTO to suit their members interests.
There are eurostat figures out there that use proper statistical methods to establish pupil:teacher ratios….. but these are rubbish right ;-) Or don’t suit the INTO.
They’d rather come up with their own figures….. then use the eurostat figures to make a flawed illustration….
I could be wrong, love to see the INTO’s statistical method though. Bet I’m right.