Maybe if the Education dept stopped the practice of re-hiring retired teachers to cover sick/leave posts these young qualified teachers would have a better chance.

20 hours a week, mostly spent managing students that are unwilling to learn which results in the “good” students suffering. From the outside it looks a piece of piss. It’s a tough job, with very little thanks for what they contribute to people’s lives.

I would fall in to this 25% category. It is clear that most people who perceive teaching as 22 hour week job are very much misinformed. I arrive in in work each day at 8:30am and the soonest I leave the building is 4pm but, to be honest getting away that early would be a rarity. During my “free” classes and I use that term very loosely. I can be engaged in a variety of activities which, can range from the obvious i.e organising classes and correcting to the less obvious, such as coaching the debate team or organising a hurling match for the senior team. I might be setting up the hall for a open evening or a presentation night. Perhaps preparing for the parent teacher meetings that we now have outside school times or one of the several school organisational meetings we must attend during the year again, outside school time. I could go on and on, those who teach will know what I mean , those who do not may or may or may not. I won’t even start about prep work that goes on after the school day finishes.

I went to University for five years, as well as my Degree and H-dip I have a Masters Degree in Economics. I could do something else, but i don’t want to. I love my job. I work hard and i find it a very rewarding profession. I have a contract for 85% of full hours. However don’t let this percentage mislead you I still in spend the same amount of time in my work place as someone at 100%. I just happen to get paid less. This isn’t my schools fault, it’s just the system that the school must work within.

Holidays: Yes they are great and I do deserves them. Get over it. We get paid for 9 months of the year this payment just happens to be spread over 12 months. You could probably take 3 months holidays in the summer if you were willing to take an additional 25% pay cut…think about it.

I’m not here to complain about how much I get paid, of course I’d like to be paid more who wouldn’t? I’m not here to complain about how much work I do, its the career I have chosen. What I want to do is suggest to anyone who thinks its such a soft job and they’d love to do it, to change their profession and give it a go and see how easy they think it is. In fact maybe they could just get a little more information on what they perceive to be a handy number. In return when I get to the point of complaining so much about my career choice I’ll pick something more suitable for me..deal?

Welcome to our world! Before you say it, even if the full time hours look like a stroll in the park i.e. 22 class hours a week, please remember the amount of attendant preparation, design and organisational work that goes into every class….based on the assumption that all teachers prepare for their classes. Yes the holidays are good, but not that good, when one considers what you are contracting your life away to do – remain in a tightly-controlled, and ever-depreciating modest income profession, where you are constantly being pushed to deliver results in a system that barely pays your rent.

And even if you achieve markedly higher-than-average results, there is no bonus package, no promotion and no kickback. Either you’re in it for the sake of learning and teaching, or you’re in the wrong place.

If a newly qualified teacher does manage to secure a full time job, after their degree and H-Dip, they will get paid roughly the same as an entry level cleaner in the HSE (which is €9000 below the average industrial wage). Full figures and more here: http://www.morestresslesssuccess.ie/2012/04/want-to-be-teacher-why-bother.html

I spent visited a friend whose husband is a teacher. To say it was an eye-opener was an understatement. Between correcting exercises for the days’ classes and preparing future lessons (to say nothing of organising his department) he only put in an appearance in the evenings except for dinner.
Take unto account school trips and other extracurricular activities (courses during holidays) and I’d say a teacher’s life was pretty full of work.

?If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job.??
Donald Quinn?

A lot of jobs have become casual hour s over the past few years . People have to ”ring in” to their place of employment to get their hours for the week or even on a day to day basis…. The unions are a pathetic shower of wimps. The employers will not be happy til they have people queuing at the work doors/ gates and picking and choosing as they did 100 years ago . Ridiculous and heartless.

Less than full time hours???? Can they work less hours than they already do!!!

Teachers unions protecting stone age work practices!