Maltese teachers among few getting a pay rise
Maltese teachers in State schools, who will be receiving a 2.5 per cent annual pay rise in the coming five years, may count themselves lucky compared with the situation of their colleagues in the EU.
According to a new report issued by the European Commission, during the past year, 16 European countries reduced or froze teachers’ salaries in response to the ongoing economic downturn.
On the other hand, remuneration for Maltese teachers still increased through the cost of living adjustment.
The report shows that teachers in Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Slovenia were the worst affected by the austerity measures, seeing their wages being cut over the past year.
The salaries of teachers in other member states, including Italy and Cyprus, were frozen.
Greece has cut teachers’ basic salaries by 30 per cent and stopped paying Christmas and Easter bonuses, while Ireland slashed salaries of new teachers by 13 per cent.
According to the report, ‘Teachers’ And School Heads’ Salaries And Allowances In Europe 2011/12’, Maltese State school teachers received between €23,326 and €30,904 gross per year.
Teachers in Malta are not among the best paid in the EU, although some of their colleagues fare much worse. The best paid teachers are those in Luxembourg with an average annual salary of €75,471, followed by teachers in Denmark (€46,152) and Wales (€41,304).
At the other side of the scale, those in Romania were by far the worse-off, having an annual salary of just €9,614. They were followed by Bulgaria (€10,405) and Latvia (€12,948).
In Malta, teachers in the private sector are normally paid higher rates than those in State schools although salaries differ slightly between schools in line with teachers’ level of experience. Teachers in Church schools are usually paid as much as those in the public sector because their salaries are mainly paid through public funds.
European Education Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou appealed to member states to treat teachers’ remuneration and working conditions as a “top priority”, noting that they played a vital role in the future of the EU and member states.
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44 Comments
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Rod Micallef
Oct 17th 2012, 16:40
report is wrong they are paid much less.
A lot of crap
Martin Bezzina Wettinger
Oct 14th 2012, 10:16
I have been teaching for practically twenty years and my pay is no where near the 30000 Euro mentioned in the above article.
charles tabone
Oct 14th 2012, 04:07
Yes because they deserve it! But if you have to compare with European counterparts you have to take into consideration the huge pay packet and allowances that euro teachers take home. INCOMPARABLE! And our level of taxation is a thief on their pay packet. Who do you think you are kidding?
Peppi Borg
Oct 13th 2012, 22:17
Figures are totally wrong. A teacher starts at scale 9 and reach a maximum of scale seven while a head earns a salary at scale 6 of the civil service! A teacher's job is stressful as that of pilot- scientifically proven but teachers are not pilots who received a pay rise of up to 17 000 euros in 3 years.
Joanna Cassar
Oct 13th 2012, 18:55
All government employees will be getting a raise not only those pertaining to the teaching profession.
it is shameful how certain people (who hardly know an iota about the teaching profession) insist to go on and on about THE PROFESSION THAT MAKES ALL OTHER PROFESSIONS POSSIBLE.
SHOW SOME RESPECT AND GRATITUDE
Victor Pulis
Oct 13th 2012, 15:15
Maltese State school teachers received between €23,326 and €30,904 gross per year.
Whoever came up with that sum mistook teachers for parkers!
Mr C Camilleri
Oct 14th 2012, 13:05
You are so wrong Mr Pulis. You have NO IDEA of what you are talking about. If i had that pay i would be rich by now !
Chris Cocker
Oct 16th 2012, 18:04
Victor, I must say that you`re not so good at Maths!!! Teachers in the other EU countries receive such amount!!
Carmel Camilleri
Oct 13th 2012, 15:03
It seems that only Malta under Gonzipn can afford this luxury. . With the teachers we can add the civil servants, Airmalta employees, and other collective agreements.
And we find people who still insist for a change. Perhaps they will get change like the French people got..
Sandra Hammett
Oct 13th 2012, 13:38
Why is it always teachers who have to bear the grunt of others! I haven't heard of anybody complaining when other civil servants, rightly so, got a much awaited pay rise! One should consider the studying one has to do to become a teacher, the amount of preparation work as well as corrections, done at home. It's high time teachers in Malta are treated as the professionals they really are!!
Carmel Camilleri
Oct 13th 2012, 14:59
Rita all professionals work 8 hours or more a day for a 5/6 day wk. with only one month leave unlike teachers who only attend school 175 days
J. Debono
Oct 13th 2012, 17:15
@ Carmel Camilleri
Easy - go to University, it's only a 4 year course, should be peanuts to you.
And you will have a cushy job, and a good pay.
Sour grapes!!
Mr leo attard
Oct 13th 2012, 22:21
@C Camilleri...we went through this holiday crap a few years ago. teachers can attend school as late as Juy 15 attending inservice courses and report back to work around sept 18. teachers' summer holidays fall in a time when the day is half day. someone like you, you wouldn't understand, or simply refuse to accept, the fact that most teachers have to carry on school-related work after school hrs
joseph saliba
Oct 13th 2012, 12:57
The success of a nation depends on good teachers. We pay students to encourage learning. Why not teachers to whom we owe our results in every educational field?
maria mifsud
Oct 13th 2012, 12:56
23,000? If I'm not mistaken I received less than 19,000 euros...that means a difference of 4,000!!! From where did they get the statistics?
Also you cannot compare Malta to Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia...the cost of living their is much more cheaper than here!
Marco Galea
Oct 13th 2012, 16:59
yes and their wages are much lower too ... I were in Bularia, a doctor who works in hospital refers you to his private clinic instead of treating you in hospital because else he wont live
R Fenech
Oct 13th 2012, 11:40
Whoever wrote this article... get your numbers right next time. Teachers do not earn €23,000 gross per year but around €16,000.
Mr Mike Farrugia
Oct 13th 2012, 15:34
Probaby someone found what budget is allocated to the education dept and divided it by the number of teachers employed!
Mario Busuttil
Oct 13th 2012, 17:27
You have said that teachers get 16,000 euros as yearly salary,,you are wrong....scale 9 is over 18,000 euros while teachers are in scale 8 to scale 6.. As government reforms ,scale 6 without COLA as 2012 is over 22,600 euros....I don'think you are a state Teacher.By the way, they merit this salary and i am not against.
Mary Borg
Oct 13th 2012, 18:43
Mario, you are wrong. A teacher starts at scale 9 and can only raise to scale 7 after 16 years of service. He remains on that scale until he retires. Only heads of school can go up to scale 6. If you don't believe me check this out... http://finance.gov.mt/image.aspx?site=MFIN&type=estimate&ref=773
Kurt Mifsud
Oct 13th 2012, 11:09
A teacher in Malta earns a salary of about 14-15k a year if I'm right. They get a pay rise after how much? 10 years? If any teacher is reading this please correct me if I'm wrong.
Suggestion: Let the church pay for its school teachers and invest more in state schools! First things first
Mr Mike Farrugia
Oct 13th 2012, 13:03
Dear kurt. If church schools had to close down, where will the children end up? For your information, the cost per school child in a church school is by far less than that of government schools! A wise government would actually invest more in church schools and beside providing better discipline, it would actually save money.
J Degabriele
Oct 13th 2012, 15:23
Let us remember that the aid that govt gives to church schools is given through goodnes of heart but because of an agreement, that everybody seems to have forgotten about. All this 'aid' is in payment of all the lands and propery that the Church passed on to the Maltese govt.
Kurt Mifsud
Oct 16th 2012, 09:59
What land J Degabriele? Land that the church had inherited from dying people in their last minutes?
Mr Farrugia - May I remind you that the government's budget for church schools is 40 million. Now please come forward with proof about what you said! May I remind you also that the church gets loads of donations in return which are non-taxable.
Maria Agius
Oct 13th 2012, 10:49
Maltese State school teachers received between €23,326 and €30,904 gross per year
A HEAD of school on maximum pay receives a salary of €23927. The maximum of scale 7 (the most a teacher can reach after more than 20 years' service) is €22210. Where did the report get its figures from? Can the salaries section please adjust my salary to the 'official' figures quoted in this report?
Ms Sylvia Zammit
Oct 13th 2012, 11:29
Same here! 23.000 Euro?!!!! In my dreams! After more than 30 years of service my gross pay is nowhere near....and, as a peripathetic teacher, I spend a small fortune on petrol to get to work in different places...
Joseph Micallef
Oct 13th 2012, 14:33
Maria, nothing personal, you don't know what you're saying. I know a bit about the subject :) I've been into education for a decade or two. A teacher never reaches the sum of €30,904 per year. A teacher starts on scale 9, after 8 years will be promoted to scale 8, another 8 years and will be promoted to scale 7 and stops there. This is far below €30K! it's somewhere in the region of €20K.
Maria Agius
Oct 13th 2012, 15:38
@ Joseph Kindly read what I wrote. I said exactly what you have said. The first sentence was a quote from the 'report'.
Joseph Francis
Oct 13th 2012, 18:33
Joseph Micallef......you said you have been in education for a decade or two and yet you did not understand what Ms Maria Agius actually said. People like you undermine our reputation simply because you do not even understand plain English. You have been into education a decade or two, plus 15 to years learning and still you did not understand her statement. And said the same thing over again.
M. Bezzina
Oct 13th 2012, 10:35
Infact I was considering to move to Luxembourg good wages there..probably the best in Europe
Marija Helen Attard Raute
Oct 20th 2012, 15:19
what about renting a house in Luxembourg?? Cost of living??
Charles Cremona
Oct 13th 2012, 10:24
If we go on like this we will soon join the majority of countries in the EU who have become uncompetitive, they are now cutting wages to compete again whilst we are raising ours, or is there an election on the horizon.
J Cauchi
Oct 13th 2012, 10:20
May general elections come every year or two, at least for some lucky ones!!
Christian Calleja
Oct 13th 2012, 09:47
Taking the average state school teacher as being Scale 8 Step 4, this would mean an average salary of €19266 in 2010. An extremely far cry from the figures mentioned in the article.
This is actually a decent amount when compared to what supply teachers, LSAs, and kindergarten assistants get.
Christian Calleja
Oct 13th 2012, 09:39
"According to the report, .... Maltese State school teachers received between €23,326 and €30,904 gross per year."
A state school teacher starts from Salary Scale 9 and moves up to Scale 7 over a period of 16 years. Therefore, the MAXIMUM a state school teacher could have earned in 2010 was €22210. For 2011, this increased by €60 (COLA).
http://mut.org.mt/other%20info%20(info).htm
G Schembri
Oct 13th 2012, 09:36
It is not only teachers in state schools who will be getting a pay rise, teachers in church schools will automatically get the same pay rise. Teachers in Church schools now get the same, or better working conditions than their colleagues in state schools.
Workers in other countries who had their salaries frozen or reduced still get higher salaries than Maltese workers.
D Fenech
Oct 13th 2012, 09:22
I dont know who receives the amounts mentioned above but spking for myself I am an LSA and last Year I received a gross amount of 12-13k euros so that is very little keeping in mind the job we do and the danger we go through to carry out our jobs.
T Mifsud
Oct 13th 2012, 10:11
Danger? It is not a sarcastic question. It is something I do not know about.
N. Agius
Oct 13th 2012, 10:16
@ D Fenech .... You can always find another job!
I hate to say it but there are a small number of LSAs simply got into the job not because they have inclusion at heart but to earn a living. Some LSAs do really a good job and are highly commended.
Caroline McAlister
Oct 13th 2012, 11:13
What Danger!!!!! The only danger that one finds in our schools is the massive amount of BULLYING that our children go through every day especially from some ignorant so called teacher or LSA who as far as Im concerned at the end of the day is nothing more than an EMPLOYEE whose wages is being paid by the TAX PAYER. MY TAXES! MY MONEY!!.
Mary Borg
Oct 13th 2012, 14:14
@ Caroline McAlister: If I were you, I would rather worry that my so called money and taxes are being abused by the 'honorable' MPs for their Eur 500 weekly raise than slinging mud to those who are constantly taking care of your own kids in schools and giving them a healthy academic and holistic education.
Maria Agius
Oct 13th 2012, 15:48
@ Ms McAlister. I sincerely hope your children never hear you talk in that way about their teachers and LSAs. And then we wonder why children have no sense of respect and manners. If you have a problem with the attitude of a particular person, go and discuss it with the school administration.
D Fenech
Oct 13th 2012, 16:55
Talking of dangers please note that a lot of LSAs have to push wheelchairs, take care of aggressive students who have ADHD problems and children with SEBD who have social problems. We go through bullying ourselves. Even though I love my job and I work very hard to help all the students who need my assistance I still feel that we are not paid enough.
Rod Micallef
Oct 17th 2012, 16:38
@caroline mcallister
You have a twisted version of a teachers and LSA. They have an amount of responsibilty, after school hours which can go well after your bedtime.
and speaking of they are being paid out of our pockets. It is better to be focus our attention on those abusers who do not pay their taxes or those people who get away with it!
Please choose the reason of your report below: