Solution to education crisis is to cut teachers’ pay

YOUR teacher letter writer November 23 correctly worries about the impending cuts in education and the impact that it will have on our children’s education.

Could I propose a solution for this concerned teacher/principal? Take a pay cut. Teachers continue to enjoy excellent pay and conditions and job security as well as numerous perks such as extravagant bonuses for supervision duty (approx €1,500 a year) and degree qualifications (worth over €4,000 per year) on top of their already generous salaries. It is irritating to have to listen to teachers wheeling out the “poor children” line time and again when if they really did care about the children, they would readily agree to work for less and we would therefore be spared the necessary cuts elsewhere in education.

Instead we have the Croke Park Agreement (nothing to do with the children) that has locked in their unsustainable pay scales up to at least 2014 when teachers will no doubt threaten us with strikes yet again. The reality is that teaching is an extremely well paid profession and is in fact part of the elite group of “profiteers” that your letter writer accuses of condemning our children to having to bail out. So before your contributor points the finger of greed in the direction of others, an examination of the actions of his own profession and the unions that represent him would be a worthwhile exercise.