Teachers’ Day is yet to come

Tuesday was “Teachers’ Day” in Turkey, however Turkey's teachers have little to celebrate according to a report by an international development institute and a survey conducted by Türk Eğitim-Sen, an education union.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD’s, report “Education at a Glance 2009” highlights that teachers in Turkey work for longer hours at lower wages than their European colleagues. Teachers in Turkey have the longest mandatory work hours per year at 1,832 hours, while Europeans work an average of 1,652 hours. In Scotland, work hours are 1,365, while the average in Spain is 1,425 and 1,423 in Portugal.

The report indicates that teachers earn $35,000 to $70,000 annually in Germany and Holland, while in Turkey a primary or high school teacher who just started their career is paid $14,063. This number climbs to $17,515 for experienced teachers. The rate difference between teachers starting their career and veteran teachers is 33 percent in Germany, 88 percent in Ireland and 157 percent in Portugal. The OECD average is a 71 percent wage increase for teachers as they progress in their careers, while in Turkey it is only 25 percent.

Data from the Education Ministry shows that women teachers are in the majority in pre-school and primary school education and men are employed more generally in high schools, technical high schools and vocational high schools. There are 29,342 teachers for pre-school education in Turkey; 1,064 of them are men and 27,698 are women. The number for primary schools is 453,318; 224,644 men and 228,674 women. There are 107,789 teachers working at general high schools; 61,801 of them are male and 45,988 are female. The number of teachers at vocational and technical high schools is 88,924, 53,229 are men and 35,695 are women.

Türk Eğitim-Sen’s survey was conducted among 3,065 pre-school and primary school teachers. According to the survey, 70.5 percent of those are in credit card debt. The percentage of the ones who said they cannot provide enough care for their family due to financial difficulties is 33.3, while 18.7 percent said they are hostile toward their families and 14.7 percent said they could not engage in healthy dialogue with their spouse and children due to the same problem. Some 21.6 percent said discussions of divorce stem from financial issues.

Financial difficulties cause anger, worry and anxiety for 34.1 percent; sleeping disorders for 17.5 percent; a lack of concentration for 11.2 percent; depression for 7.5 percent and panic attacks for 1.5 percent of the teachers who took part in the survey. While 62.7 percent said they love their job, 37.2 said they do not. Some 96.7 percent of the teachers believe the Education Ministry does not support them well in economic, social and psychological terms.

Turkey celebrates Teacher's Day every year on Nov. 24.