REACTION TO THE TEACHERS’ VALUING EDUCATION PROTEST

ASTI protest-incredible have to ask for equal pay for equal work for teachers in 2012 in a Republic. @CarmelGray1

It's a bit rich as it was the teacher unions who signed up to Croke Park and that had lower pay for the new recruits. – Richard Collumb, thejournal.ie

As an newly qualified teacher, everything is extremely bleak at the moment. I'm just disappointed that I'm struggling do what I've been trained to do. Looks like I'm going to be cruising the jobs market for some time to come. – Orly, thejournal.ie

I've no sympathy for them. – Westmeath, thejournal.ie

Teachers protest against cuts in education, em no, against cuts in pay. – @BillyLinehan

The difference between the new teacher graduates and other university graduates is that teachers are tied to a very slow-moving increment scale while other graduates can get decent increases when they move jobs or deserve a pay rise. – Eric Nelligan, thejournal.ie

Teachers have been cut 30 per cent in pay since 2008, a teacher said at the protest. Many in private sector have been cut a lot more or have lost jobs. @coillteman

As a teacher on the old rate, I would gladly back the idea of equalising the pay scales by cutting all teachers pay by say

3 per cent and rescinding the cut to the new entrants. The unions didn't agree to these cuts to new entrants; the Government did. – Prester Jim, politics.ie

“Nothing left to take from education”. How about cuts to existing teachers’ pay? Not pension contributions, actual cuts. – @RobMorganDublin

I think new teachers should form their own union. As the current unions completely shafted them in favour of the "old boys club". All teachers should have had their wages cut. Where I work, we all had to share the pain with pay cuts across the board regardless of your position or length of employment. I couldn't imagine working with colleagues who got paid more, doing the same work, just because they have been there a few years before me. – siobeli, thejournal.ie

Why don't you see any teachers protesting during the summer or during a mid term break? – Begrudgy, thejournal.ie

In the short term, the easiest (and best) way to do away with any wage inequality is for the teachers to come up with a formula where the top earners get a little less and new entrants get more. Given how few new entrants are coming in, it would be a very minor adjustment for the high earners. In the longer term, there must be a new round of proper benchmarking, not only against the private sector but against teachers in other countries. – Keith-M, politics.ie

Anyone who thinks we work a 20-hour week., please join us for just one week in the classroom and shadow us: see the work we put in. Kids go home at 3, it doesn't mean our job is finished. Incredible negativity and quite frankly ignorance shown towards modern teachers. – Peter Melrose, thejournal.ie