Irish teachers are among the highest-paid in the developed world but work some of the shortest hours, an OECD report has shown. The average salary of an Irish secondary school teacher with 15 years experience in 1995 was $33,840 (about £21,150).
This is behind only Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands among 18 OECD countries and is more than $6,000 (about £3,700) above the OECD average.
In the same year Irish teachers taught an average of 45 hours per student per year, compared with 97 in Belgium, 80 in Denmark, 61 in Italy, 56 in the Netherlands, 50 in France and 45 in Germany. Only Greek teachers work fewer teaching hours, with 43. The OECD average was 59 hours.
However, Department of Education sources strongly defended Irish teachers' salaries.
"There has been a tendency in some developed countries to underpay their teachers. We are the exception in that we value our teachers highly," said one yesterday.
"Teachers are by far the most significant element in any education system," said another. "Unless you have quality teaching you won't get quality output."
Mr Charlie Lennon, general secretary of the secondary teachers' union, the ASTI, said those countries in need of greatest educational reform were those where "there is a practice of paying their teachers badly."
"Education at a Glance", the OECD's voluminous annual compendium of statistics and analysis, also shows that despite the considerable spending increases of recent years, Ireland still lags behind other European and North American states in spending on education.
In 1994 Ireland was fourth from the bottom of the table for spending on educational institutions as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product per capita.
This is partly explained by the proportion of young people in the Irish population. In 1995, 41.8 per cent of the population here was aged between five and 29, the highest proportion in the EU and behind only Korea, Turkey and Mexico in the OECD.
Comparative European percentages were 31.1 in Germany, 31.7 in Sweden and 34.7 in France and the UK.
Department officials said yesterday that Ireland's proportion of young people would continue to be above the OECD average until at least 2010, with a knock-on effect on education spending.
Literacy levels among both adults and children remain problematic. Nearly one in four Irish adults have very low literacy skills - although this is strongly contested by the primary teachers' union, the INTO - compared with one in 16 in Germany.
This can partially be explained by the 55 per cent of Irish adults who have not completed secondary education. The equivalent statistic for Germany is 16 per cent.
In a statement, Mr Lennon said the OECD figures leaked on Tuesday which showed Ireland to have the largest second-level school classes in Europe "mean that talk of our boom economy rings hollow with parents, students and teachers."
It was unacceptable that nothing was done in the recent Budget to tackle these class sizes "when the State coffers took in an extra £1.1 billion this year."