Better salaries, shorter holidays: Where Australian teachers rank compared with the rest of the world

Australia is among the most lucrative countries in the world to be a teacher, but teachers have shorter school holidays and more classroom hours than most other nations, a new report has revealed.

The OECD’s annual education-at-a-glance survey, released on Tuesday, found primary and secondary teachers in Australia were paid an average of almost $US74,000 ($112,000) last year, or 42 per cent more than those in other countries surveyed.

Primary school teachers’ salaries ranked seventh in the world behind countries such as Austria and Ireland as well as Germany, which had the highest-paid teachers. Pre-primary teachers in Australia earned an average $78,527.

The salary comparison is based on purchasing power parity (PPP), a technique used to measure the relative value of different currencies.

Relative to the salaries of other occupations requiring a tertiary degree, Australian teachers’ pay packets placed fifth in the world – a key metric for attracting people into the profession, the report said.

“Teachers’ salaries relative to other occupations with similar education requirements, and their likely future earnings, may have an influence on whether individuals choose a teaching career.”

Actual primary school teacher salaries were 3 per cent lower than those of other full-time tertiary-educated workers, compared with an average of 17 per cent lower across the OECD. The OECD analysis used nationwide figures from Australia and comes after NSW teachers were awarded once-in-a-generation pay rises which will result in the most experienced educators taking home almost $130,000 this year.

School holidays were shorter in Australia at just 12 weeks compared to the OECD average of 13.5 weeks.

An Australian student spent 11,000 hours in class over the period from primary to lower secondary (the first three years of high school), which was double the number of hours a student in Poland spent in school. Polish students performed slightly better than Australian teens in mathematics in the latest round of international tests.

The report noted the salary cost per student in primary education in Australia was $US4958, which was $US965 higher than the OECD average.

“This difference reflects the combined effects of several factors: above-average teachers’ salaries increase the cost by [$US1118]; above-average instruction time adds [$US1021],” the report said.

Conversely, the above-average number of hours that a single teacher taught and above-average class sizes reduced the total salary costs by a slightly lesser amount, it said.

“Higher levels of expenditure on education cannot automatically be equated with better performance by education systems,” the report said.

It noted structural factors such as demographic changes, different policies and teaching time.

When it came to university studies, 20 per cent of Australian university graduates have a degree in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, below the OECD average of 23 per cent.

While completion rates dropped around the world, the report said that in Australia, bachelor degree completions during the pandemic increased substantially from 33 per cent to 48 per cent.

Across OECD countries there was substantial growth in the share of international students between 2018 and 2023. Such students now make up 7.4 per cent of all students. Australia’s proportion of international students increased slightly to 27.2 per cent of all students.

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