varkey gems foundation_2013 global teacher status index.pdf

7/27/2019 varkey gems foundation_2013 global teacher status index.pdf

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Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 3

Foreword ........................................................................... 4by Sunny Varkey

Executive Summary.................................................6by Professor Peter Dolton

Topic Insight ...................................................................9by Lord Adonis

Topic Insight .................................................................10by Andreas Schleicher

VGF Teacher Status Index ................................12

Global Teacher Status Report .......................15

Country Proiles ....................................................... 28

Technical Appendix:

Data Tables ............................................................50

Methodology ....................................................... 55

TABLE OFCONTENTS


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But improving pay and conditions alone wont solve the problem o teacher status. Unless teaching is

valued culturally, then the incentive o better pay will not be enough. There are many ictional repre

sentations o heroic doctors saving lives on television rom Greys Anatomyto ER and House but

hardly any equivalent stories o teachers turning lives around. Every year International Nurses Day

is celebrated in the UK with a service in Westminster Abbey. President Reagan introduced National

Nurses Day in the US, which is an opportunity or the media to highlight the achievements o nurses.

However, the equivalent in education, World Teachers Day, is mostly ignored. We need to think harder,

push urther, and dream bigger, i we are ind ways o truly celebrating the noble proession.


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6 | Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013

The growth o internationally comparative student assessment measures such as the Programme

or International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study

(TIMSS), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the publication o the Organisa

tion or Economic Cooperation and Developments (OECD) annual Education at a Glance provides a

global perspective o how children perorm on comparable educational tests across many countries

o the world. We are beginning to understand how this perormance may relate to the resources that a

country devotes to its educational system, the teacher recruitment process and how teachers are paid.

What is much less well understood are the roles cultural, political and economic actors and social

standing play in the position o teachers in each country, and how these might impact on education

systems. More speciically we need to understand:

How teachers are respected in relation to other proessions

The social standing o teachers

Whether parents would encourage their children to be teachers

Whether it is perceived that children respect their teachers

What people think teachers ought to be paid

Whether people think teachers ought to be paid according to the perormance o their pupils

The degree to which people trust their education system

How much teachers are trusted to deliver a good education to our children

Whether teachers unions have too much power.

The questions above are all dimensions o teacher status. An evaluation o teacher status can pro

vide valuable insight or both educationalists and governments to improve educational outcomes.

Furthermore, a global comparison may highlight trends and similarities across countries that can be

evaluated to aid educational reorms.

The VARKEY GEMS Foundation wanted to ind out the answers to these questions. A 21-country survey

was conducted rom 1,000 representative respondents in each o the ollowing countries: Brazil; Chi-

na; Czech Republic; Egypt; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Israel; Italy; Japan; the Netherlands; New

Zealand; Portugal; Turkey; Singapore; South Korea; Spain; Switzerland; UK; and the United States (US).

These countries were chosen on their perormance in PISA and TIMSS assessments to represent each

major continent and as representative o diferent strands o education systems. It was deemed important

to compose a sample in line with the relevant proportions in the population. This was done by careul

consultation o the available country-speciic population census inormation. Quota sampling was used to

allocate respondents using a balanced sample o 16 to 70-yearolds, which had sample ractions accord-

ing to their: age, gender and region. The data or this study was collected by the polling company Populus

using a web-based survey (WBS). The results are collated in this report and presented in three key sections:

Teacher status

Perceptions o teacher reward

Teacher agency and control.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYby Proessor Peter Dolton

Peter Dolton obtained his PhDrom Cambridge University. He is

presently Proessor o Economics

at Sussex University and a Senior

Research Fellow at the Centre or

Economic Perormance at the

London School o Economics.

He was ormerly Sir David Dale

Proessor o Economics at

Newcastle University. Prior to

that he held posts at Bristol and

Hull Universities.


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TEACHER STATUSThis portion o our study ocused on teacher status, and provided indicators that ormed the cal

culation o the Teacher Status Index. Teacher respect has a multitude o dimensions, however our

indicators were deemed most beneicial to this study:

Ranking status or primary teachers, secondary teachers and head teachers against other key

proessions

Analysing the aspiration o teaching as a sought proession

Creating a contextual understanding o teachers social status

Examining views on pupil respect or teachers.

While there is no clear correlation between the status accorded to teachers through their Index

score and student outcomes in their country, there are however signiicant variations between di

erent countries due to a number o potential dierences in perception and culture. Previous work

has pointed to correlations between teacher pay and pupil outcomes, so this area merits serious

investigation.

The study ound that the average respect ranking or a teacher across the 21 countries was 7th out o

14 proessions, indicative o a midway respect ranking or the proession. There is no international

consensus on what constitutes a comparative proession or teaching, but twothirds o countriesjudged the social status o teachers to be most similar to social workers. The second closest status

association was to librarians (as ranked by US, Brazil, France and Turkey).

There are signiicant contrasts between countries over the extent to which they would encourage

younger generations to become teachers. While 50% o parents in China provide positive encour

agement, only 8% do so in Israel. Parents in China and South Korea, and in Turkey and Egypt are

most likely to give encouragement to children to become teachers. Similarly, these countries show a

higher level o belie that pupils respect their teachers. Conversely in most o the European countries

surveyed, more respondents thought that pupils disrespect teachers than respect them.

PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHER REWARDOne important dimension o how an occupation is regarded, which is inextricably linked to socialstatus, is pay. For many, status in a society depends on how much you are paid in absolute or relative

terms. This section evaluated country perceptions o the estimated actual wage and perceived air

wage o teachers in their country. In most countries, the perception o what teachers earn accords

with reality. However, in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Israel and the US teachers earn more than

people think they do. Conversely, the starting wage or teachers in the UK, Brazil, New Zealand, Spain

and Finland is signiicantly lower than perception. Respondents rom these countries placed their

estimated starting teacher wages 20% lower than the actual starting wage. In the survey, 95% o

countries said that teachers should be paid a wage in excess o the actual wage they thought they

received.

Rather than raising teachers wages in the hope o producing higher learning outcomes, many have

asked whether teacher pay should be subject to the achievement o their pupils. In order to establish

public opinion on this, we asked our participants whether they thought that teachers ought to be

paid perormancerelated pay. In all 21 countries more than 59% stated teachers ought to be paid

according to the perormance o their pupils. The average across countries was 75%, whilst In Egypt,

the igure was over 90%, and in Israel, China, Brazil and New Zealand the igure was over 80%.

TEACHER AGENCY AND CONTROLA third, important aspect o the status o teachers is the extent to which they are seen as delivering

quality education to their pupils. This is inextricably linked to the success o the education system


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o which additional stakeholders, such as government or unions, have a role to play. This are o our

study explored teacher agency by considering three questions:

The degree to which people thought teachers could be trusted to deliver a good education

The extent to which people rate the education system o their country

Public opinion o the inluence o teacher unions on teacher pay and conditions.

The average trust score or teachers across all 21 countries is a rating o 6.3 out o 10. No country gave

a rating below ive. This suggests that countries generally accord satisactory or positive trust in their

teachers. Finland and Brazil hold the most trust or their teachers, while Israel, South Korea, Egypt

and Japan hold the least.

The average rating or the education system across all countries is 5.6, slightly lower than the trust

or teachers. Similarly, seven countries rate their education system below ive, which suggests they

perceive their education system as substandard. Finland, Switzerland and Singapore are at the top o

the table, and South Korea, Egypt and Japan are at the bottom o the table.

There is a mixed picture on whether teacher unions have too much or too little inluence over teachers

pay and conditions. In the UK, and in many European countries, more people support unions having

more inluence over pay and conditions than those that support them having less inluence. Interest

ingly, some o the countries with the most recent history o teacher union unrest and direct action,

such as Japan, Greece, France and the US, have the highest proportions o people who think teacher

unions have too much inluence. In contrast, the Czech Republic, China, Egypt and Turkey have the

lowest number o people who suggest that teachers unions have too much inluence. It is also these

countries where teacher unions have played a less important political role.

CONCLUSIONIn this report we provide a summary o the main indings o our study. We highlight the determination

o the social status o teachers and disentangle this rom what they are paid. Importantly, we separate

out perceptions o teachers rom the perceptions o the quality o the education system. We explain

the dierences in the light o the real dierences between countries and in the eficiency o their

education systems.

We ind that there are major dierences across countries in the way teachers are perceived by the

public. This inorms who decides to become a teacher in each country, how they are respected and

how they are inancially rewarded. This aects the kind o job they do in teaching our children, and

ultimately how eective they are in getting the best rom their pupils in terms o their learning.


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No education system can be better than its teachers. Recruiting the brightest and best into teaching

is a critical imperative in all nations, whatever their wealth or poverty.

Previous studies have convincingly related school perormance to three variables: the academic

qualiications o teachers, teacher pay and the competitiveness o entry into teacher training. The

better the qualiications o teachers, and the more applicants per training place, the better the results

achieved by an education system or its young people.

It comes, thereore, as no surprise that nations such as Finland, South Korea and Singapore, where

there are 10 or more highly qualiied applicants per teacher training place, also top OECD and other

international assessments.

In the UK, over the 10 years when I have been intimately involved with education reorm, I have

witnessed the same trend. Fiteen years ago there were insuficient applicants to ill training places in

key subjects including maths, physics and chemistry. Now all subjects are oversubscribed and the

outstandingly successul Teach First programme, which this year recruited 1,300 graduates rom top

universities, had six applicants or every vacancy. School results have improved sharply.

To recruit the brightest and best, teaching needs to be a high status occupation, and we need to

understand better what contributes to the social standing o teachers. This is why the new VGF

Teacher Status Index is so important. By means o a comparable international survey, it yields valu

able data on the attractiveness o teaching as a career and the social value placed on the work o

teachers across a good crosssection o nations.

The results do not simply replicate the rank orderings o, or example, the OECD PISA assessments,

although the nations at the top o PISA are generally countries where the status o teachers is also

airly or very high on the VGF index. In other words, teacher status is not simply product o high

academic standards and results, or o the competitiveness o teaching as a proession, although

these are important. Wider social orces are at play.

There is a worthwhile debate to be had, nation by nation and internationally, on what might be other

important contributory actors. For example, how important is pay? What is the male/emale balance

in each teaching orce and does this aect status? Is the political proile o education as a national

cause o relevance?

There will be no deinitive answers. But simply asking the questions, in the context o the VGF index,

will be immensely valuable as a means o stimulating debate on education reorm just as the irst

publication o PISA data did at the turn o the century. For this reason, the VGF index deserves to

make a big impact.

TOPIC INSIGHTby Lord Adonis

Andrew Adonis is a ormer UK

Schools Minister, an author and

expert on education policy.


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In a global economy, the benchmark or educational success is no longer improvement by national

standards alone, but the best perorming school systems internationally. Global comparisons show

what is possible in education, they take away excuses rom those who are complacent, and they help

to set meaningul targets in terms o measurable goals achieved by the worlds educational leaders.

Not least, in the ace o rapidly improving education systems even those who claim that the rela

tive standing o countries mainly relects social and cultural actors must concede that educational

improvement is possible.

While there is much debate on how to compare educational success and how to measure educational

improvement, most will agree that the quality o an education system cannot exceed the quality o its

teachers and that the quality o teachers cannot exceed the quality o the work organisation in schools

and the ways in which teachers developed and supported. Top school systems thereore pay attention

to how they select and train their sta. They watch how they improve the perormance o teachers who

are struggling and how to structure teachers pay. They provide an environment in which teachers

work together to rame good practice and encourage proessional development that leads to stronger

educational practice. They provide intelligent pathways or teachers to grow in their careers and have

moved on rom administrative control and accountability to proessional orms o work organisation.

But how exactly do we know? Many o us were lucky enough to have some great teachers: teachers

who inspired us, who opened up new worlds or us, and whom we remember as people who changed

the course o our lie or deepened the meaning o it. But what makes a teacher great? And whodecides? Even i there is plenty o excellent teaching, ew can describe how exactly that looks like and,

surely, those who cannot deine good teaching are unlikely to develop good teachers. Any deinition

o good teaching will be complex. It will need to look at planning and preparation, including knowl

edge o content and pedagogy, knowledge o students, coherent teaching plans and knowing how to

assess student learning. It needs to look at instruction, comprising teachers ability to communicate

eectively, use appropriate discussion techniques, engage students in learning, provide eedback

and demonstrate responsiveness. It also needs to consider the climate o respect and rapport, how

teachers establish a culture o learning and how they manage student behaviour. Last but not least,

it needs to look at how teachers embrace a wider mission that includes the ability to work in teams,

managing and sharing leadership responsibilities, providing advice to parents and building commu

nity partnerships in the standards o appraisal systems.

This makes it so important or the appraisal o teachers and teaching to go beyond teachers talking

to other teachers and government oficials and to include other stakeholders perspectives. These

perspectives can have a signiicant impact since behaviour is oten inluenced by what peers and

leaders think, do and consider acceptable. The GEMS Education organisation has made an eort to

ind out. The general public was surveyed on how they rank the occupational prestige o teachers

against that o other proessions, on their perception o how students respect teachers and on the

recognition and reward systems that are and that should be used. The results provide a irst compar

ative quantiication o the social status o teachers, as seen by those or whom they work. They oer

an innovative perspective on the status o the teaching proession, even i some o the results are

puzzling, such as ranking the status o teachers higher in educational underperormer Greece than

TOPIC INSIGHTby Andreas Schleicher

Andreas Schleicher is Deputy

Director or Education and Skills

and Special Advisor on Education

Policy to OECDs Secretary

General.


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in topperormer Finland.

Nevertheless, even i educational comparisons are raught with dificulties, and their comparability

remains open to challenges, that should not justiy rejecting their use. Comparative data is a oun

dation on which education can reinvent its business model and build the coalition o governments,

businesses, and social entrepreneurs that can bring together the evidence, innovation and resourc

es to make lielong learning a reality or all. They are a powerul instrument or policy reorm and

transormational change. They do this by allowing educational stakeholders to look at themselves in

the light o intended, implemented and achieved policies elsewhere. They show what is possible in

education, in terms o quality, equity and eficiency in educational services, and they can oster better

understanding o how dierent education systems address similar problems.

The world is indierent to tradition and past reputations, unorgiving o railty and ignorant o custom

or practice. Success will go to those individuals, institutions and countries that are swit to adapt,

slow to complain and open to change. The task or governments will be to ensure that their citizens,

institutions and education systems rise to this challenge.


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The survey explores the level o respect or teachers in dierent

countries and o their social standing. Analysis o the data high

lights a variety o signiicant actors. We examined: the proile o

teacher respect; teaching as a soughtater proession; a contextu

al understanding o teachers social status; views on pupil respect

or teachers and summarised the data. We then developed an

index or ranking o teacher status by country.

A statistical technique, Principal Component Analysis, was used

to capture as much o the variance in the data as possible in the

smallest number o actors. The aim o this procedure was to

identiy correlations between dierent variables where they were

measuring the same thing, and hence reduce the observed vari

ables into a smaller number o principal components. The Index is

based on our o the questions that we asked in the study:

1. Ranking primary school teachers against other proessions

2. Ranking secondary school teachers against other proessions

3. Ranking o teachers according to their relative status based on

the most similar comparative proession

4. Rating perceived pupil respect or teachers

To act as a comparator, the Teacher Status Index is presented

on the ollowing page as a table, against each countrys average

teacher salary, as well the PISA ranking o average scores per

country. (PISA data not available or Egypt.)

THE GLOBAL

TEACHERSTATUS INDEX

(21 survey countries indexed on a relative scale 1100)

Figure 1: Teacher Status Index


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COUNTRY INDEX RANKING

AVERAGETEACHER SALARY($ USD, PPP ADJUSTED)

PISA RANKING(1 = HIGHEST PISA SCORE,

20 = LOwEST PISA SCORE)

China 100 $17,730 3

Greece 73.7 $23,341 17

Turkey 68.0 $25,378 19

South Korea 62.0 $43,874 4

New Zealand 54.0 $28,438 6

Egypt 49.3 $10,604 NOT AVAILABLE

Singapore 46.3 $45,755 1

Netherlands 40.3 $37,218 7

USA 38.4 $44,917 12

UK 36.7 $33,377 10

France 32.3 $28,828 11

Spain 30.7 $29,475 16

Finland 28.9 $28,780 2

Portugal 26.0 $23,614 14

Switzerland 23.8 $39,326 8

Germany 21.6 $42,254 9

Japan 16.2 $43,775 5

Italy 13.0 $28,603 15

Czech Republic 12.1 $19,953 13

Brazil 2.4 $18,550 20

Israel 2 $32,447 18


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KEY FINDINGS There is no speciic correlation between the status accorded to

teachers through their Index score, and student outcomes in

their country. There are, however, signiicant variations betweendierent countries, due to a number o potential dierences in

perception and culture.

China, South Korea, Turkey, Egypt and Greece respect their

teachers more than all other European and Anglo Saxon

countries.

Israel and Brazil eatured at the lower end o the Index Status

Index with actors o 2 and 2.4 respectively.

The bar chart above displays each countrys Teacher Status Index ranking,

alongside the PISA ranking o average scores per country. This demon

strates that there is no apparent correlation between a countrys Index

score, and their education outcomes.

(21 survey countries indexed on a relative scale 1100)

Figure 2: Teacher Status Index against PISA rankings


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We are beginning to understand how academic perormance

may relate to the resources that a country devotes to its educa

tional system, the teacher recruitment process and how teachers

are paid. What is much less well understood are the roles cul

tural actors and social standing play in the position o teachers

in each country. More speciically we need to understand the

impact o:

How teachers are respected in relation to other proessions

The social standing o teachers

Whether parents would encourage their children to be teachers

Whether it is perceived that children respect their teachers

What people think teachers ought to be paid

Whether people think teachers ought to be paid according to

the perormance o their pupils

The degree to which people trust their education system

How much teachers are trusted to deliver a good education to

our children

Whether teachers unions have too much power.

The questions above are all dimensions o teacher status. An eval

uation o teacher status can provide valuable insight or both edu

cationalists and governments to improve educational outcomes.

Furthermore, a global comparison may highlight trends and sim

ilarities across countries that can be evaluated to aid educational

reorms.

The Varkey GEMS Foundation wanted to ind out the answers to

these questions. A 21country survey was conducted rom 1,000

representative respondents in each o the ollowing counties:Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany,

Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal,

Turkey, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, UK and the US.

The results are collated in this report and are presented in three

key sections:

Teacher status

Perceptions o teacher reward

Teacher agency and control.

TEACHER STATUSA central objective o our study was to understand how teachers

are respected in dierent countries and what their social standing

is. We did this in our ways:

Exploring the proile o primary, secondary and head teacher

status

Analysing teaching as a sought proession, in terms o parental

encouragement or their children to become teachers

TEACHER

STATUSREPORT


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Primary school teacher

Secondary school teacher

Head teacher

Doctor

Nurse

Librarian

Local government manager

Social worker

Website designer

Policeman

Engineer

Lawyer

Accountant

Management consultant.

These occupations were deliberately chosen as graduate jobs and

were careully selected with respect to how similar or dissimilar

the work might be. By giving respondents a variety o alternative

proessions, we were able to extract a precise ranking o occu

pations. The essence o the results is captured in Figure 3 below.

The line graph shows the average ranking o primary, secondary

and head teachers rom 1-14, with 14 as the highest ranking proes

sion. The line graph has been ranked in terms o respect or head

teachers or reerence purposes.

Creating a contextual understanding o teachers social status

relative to other proessions

Examining views on perceived pupil respect or teachers

Through an examination o these our actors, we aimed to estab

lish whether there are relationships existing between the variables

and across countries in terms o the respect held or teachers. The

outcomes were incorporated into a Teacher Status Index that rep

resents the respect held or the teaching proession both withineach country and relative to others.

AN EXPLORATION OFTEACHER STATUSIn order to determine the social standing o the teaching proes

sion, we asked our participants to rank 14 occupations in order o

how they are respected. The occupations chosen were:

(1 = lowest status ranking, 10 = highest status ranking)

Figure 3: Average status ranking o primary school teachers, secondary school teachersand head teachers against other proessions


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In the Czech Republic there is a signiicant dierence in ranking

between categories o teachers. Primary and secondary

teachers rank near the bottom o the country league table,

while it ranks its head teachers at the top o the table.

China, South Korea, Egypt and Turkey hold the most respect or

teachers.

Most o the European countries and the US are in the middle o

the league table on all three rankings.

Israel, Brazil and the Czech Republic hold the least respect or

teachers.

TEACHING: A SOUGHT-AFTERPROFESSIONTo analyse the status o the teaching proession urther we exam

ined whether respondents thought o teaching as a proession

they would have their children aspire to. We asked participants

to rate the extent to which they would encourage their child to

become a teacher. The answers to this question have been sum

marised in Figure 4 (below).

The average respect ranking or a teacher across the 21 countries

was 7 out o the 14 proessions. This is indicative o a midway

respect ranking or the proession relative to the other proes

sions selected. In 86% o countries head teachers are more highly

respected than secondary teachers. In 81% o countries secondary

teachers are more respected than primary teachers.

KEY FINDINGS

In France, China, Turkey and the United States primary teachersare regarded more highly than secondary teachers.

In China and Greece head teachers are ranked below primary

and secondary teachers. This may be related to the orm o

administrative role played by a head teacher.

O all the countries surveyed, the UK has the highest respect or

head teachers.

(as a percentages o respondents)

Figure 4: Would you encourage your child to become a teacher?


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In order to establish the relationship between potential earning

power and respect or the teaching proession, we plotted the

percentage o participants or each country who answered that

they would deinitely encourage or probably encourage their

children to become teachers, against the estimated, perceived

air and actual teacher wage or each country (see the ollowing

section or a urther analysis). All three relationships had no cor

relations, indicating a lack o cross country association between

the wages o teachers and whether a parent would encourage

their child to enter the proession. Across the proile o survey

participants, thereore, the judgment o encouragement or a child

to join the teaching proession was not skewed by the potential

earning power.

KEY COUNTRY FINDINGS There are signiicant contrasts between countries over the

extent to which they would encourage younger generations to

become teachers.

While 50% o parents in China provide positive encouragement,

only 8% do so in Israel.

Parents in China, South Korea, Turkey and Egypt are most likely

to give encouragement to children to become teachers.

Parents in Israel, Portugal, Brazil and Japan are least likely to

provide positive encouragement.

To establish that the extent to which a parent would encourage

their child to enter the teaching proession can be used as an indi

cator o respect or teachers, we plotted the percentage rom each

country who responded with probably encourage and deinitely

encourage against the average teacher respect in relation to other

proessions (Figure 4). A signiicant positive correlation was ound

with an R value o 0.62 (Figure 5). This indicates that the higher

the respect or teachers, the more likely a person is to encourage

their child to enter the proession. We can thereore deduce rom

Figure 5 that countries such as China and South Korea hold a high

er level o respect or teachers. This evidence its with our ranked

respect levels or teachers rom Figure 3.

The concept o encouragement is a complex one, and the extent

to which respondents answers were skewed by the potential

earning power o teachers in their respective country needed to

be examined. Naturally, most parents would wish their children

to have a respected proession but many would temper their

encouragement or such a proession i it is not highly paid. It

needs to be established as to whether results or Israel and Brazil

(where encouragement was low) were skewed by a low poten

tial earning power o the teaching proession, rather than a low

respect or the teaching occupation.

Figure 5: Positive encouragement or children to become teachers correlated againstaverage teacher respect ranking compared to other proessions


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These comparators, thereore, are most instructive o how teachers

are regarded in dierent cultures. The judgements relect the type

o work teachers do in dierent countries and the way they go about

their job. The high reverence or teachers in China is clear because

the comparison with doctors shows their position among the

most respected members o society. In contrast, countries where

teachers are considered most like librarians hints towards a wholly

dierent relationship o parents with teachers, who are regarded in

a more ormal administrative capacity. In 67% o countries, howev

er, teaching is seen as a job that deals with people on a personal

supportive basis and, hence, the status equivalent to a social work

er. While there is no international consensus or link between gross

domestic product (GDP) and the status a nation gives to its teachers,

there are links between the types o work teachers complete and

how teachers are regarded by the state in political and economic

terms. Our evidence, thereore, relects the variety o institutional

structures and societal norms o our sample countries.

KEY COUNTRY FINDINGS In the US, Brazil, France and Turkey people thought teachers

were most similar to librarians.

In New Zealand people think the job o teaching is most similar

to nursing.

In Japan people think teachers are most similar to local govern

ment managers.

It is only in China that people think o teachers as being most

closely compared to doctors. In the UK, by contrast, ewer than

5% o respondents thought teachers had an equivalent status to

doctors.

A CONTEXTUALUNDERSTANDING OF THESOCIAL STATUS OF TEACHERSQuantiying the status o a proession is immaterial i there is no

understanding o what that number translates to in the context o

each country. Alongside ranking teaching as a proession against

others, we asked respondents to nominate the proession that

was most like teaching in their country. Figure 6 represents thesummary o the responses in a graph that shows the number who

responded to the ive most named alternative career comparators.

Social worker Nurse

Librarian Local government manager.

Doctor

There is no complete international consensus on what constitutes

a comparative proession or teaching. However, in a majority

(twothirds) o countries the social status o teachers is judged to

be most similar to social workers.

When analysing perceptions on the social status o teachers it was

important to examine the actors that inluenced respondents

choices. One actor which explains some o the patterns in these

responses is that teachers in many countries are regarded as

civil servants and treated as such in terms o the way their pay

is ixed and uprated, the nature o their pensions and the orm

o their work contracts, security o employment and entitlement

to holidays. This is true o countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain,

Switzerland and the Netherlands, where teachers are regarded as

being most similar to social workers.

Figure 6: Teachers social status compared to doctors, librarians, social workers, nurses and local governmentmanagers as a percentage o proessions considered most similar


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(as a percentage o respondents)

Turkey, Egypt and Singapore have a high level o belie that

pupils respect teachers that averages at 46%.

Across Europe there are higher levels o pessimism about

students respect or teachers than in Asia and the Middle East.

In most o the European countries surveyed, more respondentsthought that pupils disrespect teachers than respect them.

Those surveyed in the US are 10% more likely to think that

pupils respect teachers than those in Europe.

PERCEPTIONS OFTEACHER REWARDOne important dimension o how an occupation is regarded,

which is inextricably linked to standing or social status, is pay. For

many, status in a culture depends on how much you are paid in

absolute or relative terms. Hence, it is quite dificult to disentangle

what teachers are actually paid, what people think they are paid,

and what people think they ought to be paid. How the answers to

these questions relate to social standing is even more subtle.

This study ound a novel way to make these distinctions. In strict

order (with no way o seeing the questions that were to ollow) we

asked people what they thought a starting secondary teacher was

actually paid in their own country the estimated actual wage.

Then we asked them what they thought was a air wage or such

a teacher the perceived air wage. Finally, we told them what a

PUPIL RESPECT FOR TEACHERSThere are many potential dimensions o respect or teachers.

We also looked at respect by asking respondents whether they

believe teachers are respected by their pupils. The responses to

this question are summarised in Figure 7.

There are major international dierences between how much

people think that pupils respect teachers. O interest is the act

that there is only a weak correlation (R = 0.3) between respect or

teachers and the perceived pupil respect or teachers. For exam

ple, in South Korea average teacher respect was rated 5th highest

at 8.3, yet pupil respect or teachers ranked lowest out o the 21

countries. This might relect a generational gap in the level o

respect shown by countries such as South Korea, where older gen

erations perceive those below them as having lost the traditional

respect held or proessions such as teaching. We suggest that par

ents o pupils believe that students do not respect their teachers

enough or as much as they should do. This is not the case or

all countries. China, Turkey and Egypt have both high pupil and

respondent respect or teachers. On the other hand, Israel and

Turkey have both low pupil and respondent respect or teachers.

KEY COUNTRY FINDINGS In China 75% o respondents believe that students respect

teachers, compared to an average o 27% per country.

Figure 7: Do pupils respect teachers?


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(Wage US$, PPP adjusted)

secondary school teachers starting salary actually is in their own

country in their local currency the actual wage. Then we asked

them to judge whether they thought such a level o pay was too

little, about right or too much. For the most part, as we can see

rom Figures 8 and 9, the public has reasonable perceptions o

what their teachers are actually paid.

Figure 9: Estimated teacher wages and perceived air teacher wages

Figure 8: Estimated teacher wages, perceivedair teacher wages and actual teacher wages

In most countries, the perception o what teachers earn is reason

ably accurate. However, in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Israel

and the US teachers earn more than people think they do. The

starting wage or teachers in the UK, Brazil, New Zealand, Spain

and Finland is signiicantly lower than what people thought.

Respondents rom these countries placed starting teacher wages

20% lower than the actual starting wage.

Figure 8 shows us that those countries where teachers relative pay

is lowest Israel, Brazil and Egypt are the countries where, under

standably, people think teacher pay needs to be raised the most in

order to be air. In the case o Egypt our respondents thought that

teachers ought to be paid 2.4 times what they perceived they are

paid. In Turkey, Greece and Israel respondents thought that teachers

ought to be paid 30-40% more than they were thought to be paid.

KEY COUNTRY FINDINGS Most countries judged a air rate o pay as similar to teachers

actual pay.

In Japan, France and the US it was judged that actual pay is

between 6% and 55% higher than a air rate o pay. This was

opposite to most o the other countries surveyed, where they

judged wages as below a air rate o pay.

In 95% o our surveyed countries people think that teachers

should be paid a wage in excess o the actual wage they thought

they received.

In the vast majority o countries people think teachers ought to

be rewarded with air pay that is between 1-40% more than what

they are presently getting.

In the case o the US and the UK the same airness question

indicates that people think air pay would involve teacher pay

rising by 3% (in the UK) to 8% (in the US).


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Our indings add a new dimension to work previously undertak

en by Dolton and Marcenaro (2011) on the relationship between

teacher salaries and student outcomes. Dolton and Marcenaro

ound that the higher teacher salaries in a country, the greater

the student outcomes (Figure 11). This research suggests that it

is not just actual teacher wages that relate to student outcomes,

but what the public estimates or perceives to be a teachers wage.

In countries where the estimated or perceived view on teacher

wages was higher, student outcomes were better

In order to gauge the impact wages have on student learning, we

correlated each countrys average PISA score against the esti

mated actual wage, the perceived air wage and actual wage o

teachers. O signiicance was that all three correlations were posi

tive, indicating that the higher teacher wages, the greater student

outcomes.

(Dolton & Marcenaro, 2011; US$, PPP adjusted)

Figure 10: Respondents estimated teacher wage correlated against average PISA scores

Figure 11: Relationship between teacher salaries and pupil attainment


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promotion o their educational system. When we related levels o

teacher respect to the desire or a PRPbased system, no relation

ship between the two variables were ound. This indicates that

respect or teachers does not inluence the publics desire or this

orm o teacher pay.

KEY COUNTRY FINDINGS In all 21 countries, more than 59% o people think teachers

ought to be paid according to the perormance o their pupils.The average across countries was 75%.

In Egypt the igure was over 90%, while in Israel, China, Brazil

and New Zealand the igure was over 80%.

In Egypt 72% o people strongly agreed that teachers should be

paid according to their pupils perormance.

At the other extreme in Switzerland only 15% o people thought

perormancerelated pay was appropriate or teachers.

O signiicance, is that both Finland and China had a large

proportion o respondents answer that teacher PRP is desirable.

This is surprising in China because we do not usually think o

a Communist system as potentially avouring a PRP system. In

Finland this result is surprising because the country appears to

have the strongest perorming teachers, at least on average.

PERFORMANCE-RELATED PAYAlthough it has been established that higher salaries are asso

ciated with improved student outcomes, there has been much

academic and political debate over how teachers should be paid.

Rather than raising teachers wages in the hope o higher student

outcomes, many have asked whether teacher pay should be sub

ject to the achievement o their pupils. Teachers would have their

annual wage based on previous student outcomes to encourage

a heightened responsibility or results (perormancerelated pay).To establish public opinion on these topical matters, we asked our

participants whether they thought that teachers ought to be paid

perormancerelated pay (PRP). The results are presented in Fig

ure 12.

Overall there is a lot o support (strong agreement or tending to

agree) or the proposition that teacher PRP should be used. At

least 59% o people across all surveyed countries either strongly

agreed or tended to agree that teachers should be paid according

to perormance. However, there is also a remarkable degree o

variation in the response across our countries. There is a weak neg

ative correlation between the desire or a PRPbased system and

educational outcomes. The relationship suggests that the higher

the educational outcomes in mathematics, science and reading

o a country, the weaker the desire or a PRPbased system. It is

interesting to note that where countries are perorming well in

PISA scores, the desire or PRP as this may relate to the successul


Figure 12: Should teachers be rewarded in pay according to their pupils results?


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There is no correlation between trusting teachers and education

al outcomes. For example, Brazil places the most trust in their

teachers, yet has one o the lowest learning outcomes o the study

countries. This suggests the public view learning outcomes as a

product o the whole education system and thus holds a broad

range o stakeholders responsible, not just teachers.

There is no correlation between trusting teachers and the VGF

Teacher Status Index. Similarly, no correlation exists between

trusting teachers and respect or teachers. This suggests that

while the teacher may be given a high status in society, this does

not mean that they are necessarily trusted by the public to deliver

quality learning outcomes.

Conversely, a country that attributes low social status to their

teachers may in act trust them to deliver a good education, but

simply do not hold high regard or the proession. Thus, trusting

teachers to deliver good education and respecting teachers are

two separate things.

KEY COUNTRY FINDINGS

The average score across all 21 countries is a rating o 6.3

out o 10.

No country gave a rating below 5, suggesting all countries place

satisactory to positive trust in their teachers.

The results show Finland and Brazil at the top o the table dis

playing strong trust in their teachers, while Israel, Japan, South

Korea and Egypt are at the bottom o the table, showing limited

trust or their teachers.

TEACHER AGENCYAND CONTROLOne important aspect o the status o teachers in society is the

extent to which they are seen as delivering quality education to

their pupils. In this regard, it is also appropriate to consider addi

tional stakeholders such as government or unions, which inlu

ence the education system and carry responsibility or delivering

quality education. Against this background we analysed:

The degree to which people thought teachers could be trusted

to deliver a good education

The extent to which people rate the education system o their

country

Public opinion regarding the inluence o teacher unions on

teacher pay and conditions.

TRUSTING TEACHERSTO DELIVER EDUCATIONWhen asked about the health system o their own country, many

people may respond that it is poor. Yet, when asked about their

own doctor, many will answer that he or she is good. We wanted

to ind i the same phenomenon can be observed or teachers and

the education system. Do we think the teachers o our own chil

dren are good despite the possibility that we think our own educa

tion system is ailing? To address this issue we asked respondents

to rate the education system in their own country and to judge

whether they thought teachers could be trusted to deliver a good

education. Figure 13 shows the country ranking on the question o

whether teachers can be trusted to deliver a good education.

Figure 13: Do you trust teachers to deliver a good education?

(rating out o 10, 1 = low rating, 10 = high rating)


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system. There is no statistical association between how good an

education system is in terms o PISA scores and how much trust

the population puts in its teachers.

KEY COUNTRY FINDINGS The average score across all countries is a rating o 5.6. Seven

countries rate their education system below 5, suggesting they

perceive their education system as substandard.

The evidence shows Finland, Switzerland and Singapore are at

the top o the table, and South Korea, Egypt and Japan are at the

bottom.

Finnish respondents have more aith in their education system

than respondents in any other country. Evidence shows Finland

has a good education system and teachers are given the credit.

Whereas in Israel people eel that teachers cannot be trusted todeliver a good education, but that the education system is not

too bad.

PERCEPTIONS OFTHE QUALITY OF THE

EDUCATION SYSTEMWe ound dierent results when we asked people to rank their education system without attributing any responsibility to teachers.

This summary inormation is contained in Figure 14.

In general the public trust teachers more than they believe their

education system is good, with higher scoring given to teachers.

There is a weak positive correlation between the two. Generally,

people showed greater trust in teachers where they rated the

education system to be good. However, this was not uniorm. For

example, Brazil put great trust in their teachers but rated their edu

cation system poorly.

A urther interesting dimension to this story is given by simply cor

relating how people rank their education system and how that sys

tem actually perorms in terms o the PISA scores or the children.

Here we see that the countries that have good PISA scores are

most systematically ranked as good by the public. Clearly, much

o the message and countrywide perception o an education

system is now being internalised in terms o PISA scores and the

international rankings produced by the OECD. Interestingly, what

clearly varies is the extent to which teachers are held responsible

(or culpable) or the success or ailure o a countrys educational

(rating out o 10, 1 = low rating, 10 = high rating) against PISA rankings o average scores (rankings created in relation to

study countries; 1 = highest score, 20 = lowest score)

Figure 14: How good is the education system?


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27/60



Figure 15: Do teacher unions have too much inluence over teachers pay and conditions?

Figure 16: Percentage o respondents who believe unions have too much inluenceover pay and conditions correlated against average PISA Scores


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Brazil................................................................................... 29

China.................................................................................. 30

Czech Republic.......................................................... 31

Egypt .................................................................................. 32

Finland .............................................................................. 33

France................................................................................ 34

Germany ......................................................................... 35

Greece ............................................................................... 36

Israel ................................................................................... 37

Italy ...................................................................................... 38

Japan.................................................................................. 39

Netherlands ................................................................. 40

New Zealand................................................................ 41

Portugal ........................................................................... 42

Singapore....................................................................... 43

South Korea ................................................................. 44

Spain................................................................................... 45

Switzerland................................................................... 46

Turkey ............................................................................... 47

UK ......................................................................................... 48

US .......................................................................................... 49

COUNTRYPROFILES


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Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 29Country Profile | Brazil

BRAZIL

198.7 11,310

3.49 N /A ISCED

Qualiyingteacher wage ($)

Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)

Public expenditureon education(% o GDP)

Minimum teacherqualiication

Teacher Status Index:2.4

KEY FINDINGS Brazil is the highest ranking country

or trusting teachers to deliver a good

education, with a score o 7.1/10, out o all

o the surveyed countries.

88% o respondents believe teachers

should be paid according to their pupils

results, which complements the view that

Brazilians trust teachers to deliver a high

quality education.

Brazilian respondents are most likely to

eel that students do not respect teachers.

Brazil had a low Teacher Status Index, signiicantly

lower than the average rom the study, which is 37.

Whilst respondents in the study gave a low ranking to

their education system, Brazil is at the top o the table

or trusting teachers to deliver a good education. This

may have had an impact upon 47% o respondents not

encouraging their child to become a teacher; although

individual teachers are trusted, respondents lack aith

in the education system and teaching environment,

rather than individual teachers. The low Teacher Status

Index ranking is matched with comparably low learning

outcomes. Brazil perorms below countries o a similar

GDP in PISA tests.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS

PISA Sces Aeae PISA(STUDY COUNTRIES)

TIMMS Sces(4TH GRADE)

Aeae TIMMS(STUDY COUNTRIES)

405 499 530N/A

386 497 529N/A

412 495 541N/A

Responses to: Do you trust teachers to deliver a good education? (Rating out o 10, 1 = low rating, 10 = high rating)

TEACHER STATUS INDEX

KEY INDICATORS


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30 | Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 Country Profile | China

CHINATeacher Status Index:100

KEY FINDINGS Over 70% o Chinese respondents believe

students respect their teachers.

China is the only country where the

majority rank teachers as holding the same

social status as doctors.

50% o Chinas respondents state they

would encourage their child to become a

teacher.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




*Average o our available regions used.

539* 499 530N/A

556* 497 529N/A

518* 495 541N/A

1350.7 9,233

N /A N /A 100


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher StatusIndex

China had the highest Teacher Status Index ranking out

o our surveyed countries, with an index o 100. China

was consistently at the top o our charts on teacher

respect and status, which ranged rom having the

highest respect or secondary school teachers to being

the most likely to give encouragement to children to

become teachers. O signiicance was that China was the

only country to rank doctors as holding the same social

status as teachers, indicative o the high status attributed

to the teaching proession. Although teacher respect

and status was high, this is not so or public opinion on

the educational system, with China midrank on how

successul the public deines its educational system.

Responses To: Would you encourage your child to become a teacher? (As percentages o respondents)


KEY INDICATORS


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Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 31Country Profile | Czech Republic

CZECH REPUBLICTeacher Status Index:12.1

KEY FINDINGS The Czech Republic is ranked among the

countries that have the lowest respect or

primary school teachers (19th) but among

the countries that have the highest respect

or head teachers (2nd).

Approximately 60% o Czech respondents

thought pupils disrespected teachers.

Only 15% said they thought pupils respect

teachers.

Fewer than 20% o respondents would

encourage their children to become

teachers.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




501 499 530536

493 497 529511

478 495 541545

1.69 10,510 12.1


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher StatusIndex

10.5 26,120

The Czech Republic is ranked near the bottom o the

Teacher Status Index, with a score o 12.1, and holds the

lowest index o all the European countries surveyed.

Not only was the respect or primary and secondary

schools teachers rated as low, but ewer than 20% o

respondents stated they would encourage their children

to become teachers. O interest is that respondents

rated the educational system in the Czech Republic

as comparatively high, yet held relatively little trust in

teachers to deliver a good education (ranked 5th lowest).

The act that its teachers hold little status or respect in

comparison to the educational system is enorced by

the statistic that 80% o Czech respondents believed

perormancerelated pay should be implemented.

Responses to: Should teachers be rewarded in pay according to their pupils results?

(As percentages o respondents)


KEY INDICATORS


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32 | Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 Country Profile | Egypt

EGYPTTeacher Status Index:49.3

KEY FINDINGS 72% o Egyptian respondents supported

perormancerelated pay or teachers, the

highest igure or any country surveyed.

The actual estimated wage o teachers

in Egypt is higher than the perceived air

wage. However, teachers are actually paid

the least in relation to countries surveyed

in this study.

In Egypt, people were less concerned

about teacher unions inluence over pay

and conditions than in any other country

apart rom the Czech Republic.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




499 530N/AN/A

497 529N/AN/A

495 541N/AN/A

80.7 6,723

N /A N /A 49.3


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher StatusIndex

Egypt ranked high on the Teacher Status Index, holding

an index o 49.3 as the 6th highest igure. The country

thereore ranked higher than a majority o European

countries. Respect or primary, secondary and head

teachers was higher than other countries, yet so too was

the belie that pupils respect teachers. O signiicance is

an analysis o teacher agency that contrasts with opinions

on teacher respect and status. Egyptians had the least

aith in their educational system out o the 21 countries

surveyed and held little trust in teachers to deliver a

good education. This may have had an impact on 72% o

Egyptian respondents supporting perormancerelated

pay the highest igure or any country surveyed

Responses to: Should teachers be rewarded in pay according to their pupils results?

(As percentages o respondents)


KEY INDICATORS


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Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 33Country Profile | Finland

FINLANDTeacher Status Index:28.9

KEY FINDINGS The Finnish held the most trust in their

education system over that o any other

country surveyed.

Although respondents rom Finland held

the most trust in their education system,

they are mid ranking in the Teacher Status

Index, with an Index score o 28.9.

In Finland, over 50% o people said that

unions should have more inluence over

teacher pay and working conditions.

Responses to How good is the education system? (Rating out o 10, 1 = low rating, 10 = high rating) against

PISA Rankings o Average Scores (rankings created in relation to study countries; 1 = highest score, 20 = lowest score)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




554 499 530522

541 497 529514

536 495 541545

2.54 20,300 28.9


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher StatusIndex

5.4 34,660

Finland ranked in the middle o the teacher status index,

with an index o 28.9. Finnish people were rated as holding

more aith in their educational system than any other

country and as holding one o the highest levels o trust in

their teachers to deliver a good education. Correlating these

results against their signiicantly above average PISA scores,

indicates that educational success is broadcast well within

Finland. However, o interest is that a higher percentage o

respondents stated they would deinitely or probably not

encourage (over 30%) as opposed to deinitely or probably

encourage (ewer than 20%) their children to become

teachers. Furthermore, despite the considerable global

reputation that Finnish teaching already has around the

world, almost 80% o people support perormance-related

pay or teachers, a igure higher than the rest o Europe.


KEY INDICATORS


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34 | Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 Country Profile | France

FRANCETeacher Status Index:32.3

KEY FINDINGS France showed higher respect or primary

teachers than secondary teachers in

contrast with most other countries in the

study.

Over 50% o respondents disagreed that

pupils respected teachers. The proportion

o those agreeing that that pupils respect

teachers was lower than in every European

country apart rom Czech Republic.

French respondents were sceptical about

unions inluence over teachers pay and

conditions, and were more likely to say

that they hold too much inluence than any

other European country surveyed.Responses to: Do Teacher Unions have too much inluence over teachers pay and conditions?(As percentages o respondents)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




498 499 530N/A

497 497 529N/A

496 495 541520

2.63 17,020 32.3


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher StatusIndex

65.7 34,000

France holds a middle ranking in the Teacher Status Index,

with an index o 32.3. The French index score is higher

than many other European countries, including Finland.

Unusual in the teacher respect rankings or France is that,

like China and Turkey, primary teachers are regarded

more highly than secondary teachers. Although France

held a middle ranking or most measures o respect,

pupil respect rankings were particularly low with 50%

o respondents disagreeing that pupils respect teachers.

Out o the European countries surveyed, France stood

out over the role o its union. People were sceptical over

the unions inluence over teacher pay and conditions

and were more likely to say that they hold too much

inluence. Furthermore, 60% agreed with implementing

perormancerelated pay.


KEY INDICATORS


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Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 35Country Profile | Germany

GERMANYTeacher Status Index:21.6

KEY FINDINGS Over 40% o German people surveyed

thought that pupils disrespected teachers,

this is high in comparison with other

countries in the study.

Germany ranked low out o the countries

surveyed on whether they trust their

teachers, with a score o 6 out o 10.

Despite holding moderate respect or

secondary teachers and head teachers,

Germany ranked 5th rom bottom on

respecting primary teachers.

Responses to: Do you trust teachers to deliver a good education?

(Rating out o 10, 1 = low rating, 10 = high rating)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




520 499 530N/A

513 497 529528

497 495 541541

N /A 32,490 21.6


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher StatusIndex

81.9 36,010

Germany ranked near the bottom o the Teacher Status

Index, below the UK, US, France, Spain and Finland,

with an index o 21.6. Low pupil respect or teachers

(ewer than 20%), little trust in teachers to deliver a

good education and modest levels o encouragement

or children to become teachers (20%) in Germany, are

signiicant actors o a low index. Despite a low respect

or teachers, PISA scores are above average and Germans

have some conidence in their educational system, rating

it as holding a middle rank out o the surveyed countries.

Furthermore, almost 40% o German respondents

urged or more union inluence on pay and conditions,

indicating that there is a desire among the public to

develop the teaching proession.


KEY INDICATORS


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36 | Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 Country Profile | Greece

GREECETeacher Status Index:73.7

KEY FINDINGS Over 40% o people in Greece would

encourage their child to become a teacher.

The percentage o Greeks who thought

that teachers are comparable with social

workers was almost 50% higher than in

any other country.

In Greece, people were more sceptical

about unions inluence over teachers pay

and conditions than every country apart

rom Japan.

Teachers Social Status Compared to Doctors, Librarian, Social Workers, Nurses and Local Government Managers

(as a percentage o proessions considered most similar)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




470 499 530N/A

466 497 529N/A

483 495 541N/A

N /A 18,590 73.7


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher StatusIndex

11.3 27,670

Greece ranked 2nd highest on the Teacher Status Index, with

an index o 73.7. Respect levels or the teaching proession

were signiicantly high, with both primary and secondary

school teacher respect among the highest o the countrys

surveyed. O interest, is that despite high levels o respect

or the teaching proession, Greeks had a lower opinion o

their education system than every other country surveyed

has o their own education system, bar Egypt. This is

signiicant when matched with the act that PISA scores

or maths, reading and science are lower than average

across the surveyed countries. O Greek respondents, 70%

supported the concept o perormance-related pay. This

is in line with a correlation ound across the 21 countries,

that the lower the educational outcomes o a country the

greater the support or perormance-related pay.


KEY INDICATORS


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Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 37Country Profile | Israel

ISRAEL

2.48 12,340 2.0


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)



KEY FINDINGS Israel ranked bottom o the Teacher Status

Index, with an index o 2. Israel accorded

the lowest respect or both primary

and secondary teachers o any country

surveyed.

Over 51% o respondents said that they

would be unlikely to encourage their child

to become a teacher.

Israel believes it has a good education

system but does not trust teachers to

deliver it, holding the lowest trust in

teachers o any country surveyed.

Israel has a lower Teacher Status Index than all o the other

countries surveyed, with an index o 2. Not only does the country

hold low respect or primary and secondary school teachers, but

respondents believed pupils hold low respect as well. Low respect

has translated into a low status or the proession o teaching in

Israel. This may be relective o their PISA scores, which are below

the study country average. Indeed, while respondents believed

they have a good educational system, they believe the ault in the

system lies with teachers whom they do not trust to deliver it. Fewer

than 10% o respondents stated they would encourage their child

to become a teacher and they believe teachers are paid more than

is thought o as air. Although there is no direct correlation between

Teacher Status Index and the educational outcomes o a country, it

is o interest to note that Israel has PISA scores signiicantly lower

than the average across our surveyed countries.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




455 499 530N/A

447 497 529N/A

474 495 541541

Teacher StatusIndex

7.9 29,600


Responses to: Do pupils respect teachers? (As percentages o respondents)

KEY INDICATORS


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38 | Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 Country Profile | Italy

ITALY

1.93 18,890 13


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher Status Index:13

KEY FINDINGS More Italian respondents urged or more

union inluence (approximately 30%) on

pay and conditions than less inluence

(below 25%).

Italy ranked higher than every European

country apart rom Finland on the question

o how inluential a teacher was in your lie.

45% o Italian respondents believed pupils

disrespect their teachers.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




489 499 530524

483 497 529508

486 495 541541

Teacher StatusIndex

60.9 29,840

The status o teachers in Italy was ranked as one o the

bottom countries in the Teacher Status Index, with an

index o 13. Italian respondents held low respect rankings

or all primary, secondary and head teachers and 45%

believed that pupils disrespect teachers. Alongside low

levels o respect, encouragement o children to enter the

proession is low, with ewer than 30% o respondents

indicated they would do so. Italy consistently scores below

average across PISA and TIMMS scores, which may have

had an impact on 65% o Italian respondents supporting

perormancerelated pay and a call or an increased

inluence o the unions. Despite a comparatively low

indicator o teacher respect and status, Italy ranked 2nd

highest out o the European countries on the question o

how inluential a teacher was in your school lie.



KEY INDICATORS


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Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 39Country Profile | Japan

JAPAN

2.11 17,800 16.2


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)



KEY FINDINGS Japan ranked the highest in terms o

believing that trade unions have too much

inluence over pay and conditions (over

60%).

Japanese people ranked their own

education 4th rom the top o surveyed

countries in terms o how good they

thought it was, with an average score o 6.7

out o 10.

Japan came 2nd rom bottom in terms o

trusting their teachers to deliver a good

education, with an average score o 5.3 out

o 10.

Japan ranked 4th rom bottom o the Teacher Status

Index, with an index o 16.2. It ranked lower than other

countries with a similar GDP per capita (Germany and UK)

and the lowest o Asian countries in the study. Japanese

respondents gave a relatively high ranking to their

education system and trust in teachers in comparison

with other countries in the study. Respondents in Japan

think teachers are paid considerably less than the actual

teachers wage, urthermore respondents said teachers

deserved ar less pay than they actually get. The majority o

respondents would support perormance-related pay. This

is an interesting conlict as Japan perorm above average

in PISA and TIMMS tests. Despite high Learning outcomes

the public does not display conidence in their education

system or attribute a high status to their teachers.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




540 499 530559

529 497 529585

520 495 541N/A

Teacher StatusIndex

127.6 34,330



KEY INDICATORS


40/60

40 | Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 Country Profile | Netherlands

NETHERLANDS

2.77 25,870 40.3


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)



KEY FINDINGS The Netherlands ranked the status o their

teachers higher than every European

country surveyed apart rom Greece.

The Netherlands rated their own education

system highly, and came 4th in the study

countries.

In the Netherlands the status o teachers

was seen as most comparable with social

workers, as was common across most

European countries.

The Netherlands ranked upper middle in the Teacher Status

Index, with an index o 40.3. It ranked above other countries

with a similar GDP per capita (Switzerland and US) and

above most other European countries in the study. Scoring is

consistent throughout as respondents show positive respect

or teachers, requently positioning in the upper middle

o the table. This is relective o learning outcomes in the

Netherlands as PISA and TIMMS scores are just above the

country averages. While respect or teachers is positive and

comparable with other countries in the study, respondents in

the Netherlands showed less respect or their head teachers.

Respect or head teachers was 2nd lowest in the study

countries and was not much higher than the respect ranking

or teachers. The trend across most other countries was that

head teachers received a signiicantly higher respect ranking.

Responses to How good is the education system? (Rating out o 10, 1 = low rating, 10 = high rating)

against PISA Rankings o Average Scores (rankings created in relation to study countries; 1 = highest score, 20 = lowest score)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




522 499 530N/A

526 497 529540

508 495 541546

Teacher StatusIndex

16.77 40,970


KEY INDICATORS


41/60

Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 41Country Profile | New Zealand

NEW ZEALAND

3.25 19,380 54


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)


Teacher Status Index:54

New Zealand ranked 5th in the Teacher Status Index, with

an index o 54. It ranked signiicantly higher than other

countries with a similar GDP per capita (Israel, Italy and

Czech republic). Respondents rom New Zealand showed

positive respect or both the education system (ranking it

6.1 out o 10) and placing trust in teachers (ranking it 6.6 out

o 10). In contrast to other countries surveyed, more people

in New Zealand believed that pupils respect teachers than

do not respect. New Zealand perormed above average

in all PISA test scores, which may support the positive

public support or teachers and the education system.

Interestingly respondents predicted teachers wages to be

signiicantly lower than the actual wage they receive. The

actual wage would need to increase by 17% to meet the wage

respondents thought was air or teachers in New Zealand.

Estimated Teacher Wages, Perceived Fair Teacher Wages and Actual Teacher Wages ($ USD, PPP adjusted)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




532 499 530497

519 497 529486

521 495 541531

Teacher StatusIndex

4.433 27,000

KEY FINDINGS New Zealand ranked 5th in the Teacher Status

Index. Respondents rated both their education

system and their teachers to be above average.

More people in New Zealand (over 40%)

believed there should be more union inluence

on pay and conditions than less (ewer than

20%).

82% o respondents would support perormance-

related pay or teachers in New Zealand and

the majority believed teachers should receive

higher wages overall.


KEY INDICATORS


42/60

42 | Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 Country Profile | Portugal

PORTUGAL

2.69 21,560 26.0


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)



KEY FINDINGS Portugal ranked 5th highest on whether

there is trust in teachers to deliver a good

education, attributing a score o 6.6 out o

10.

In Portugal nursing was identiied as

the proession with social status most

comparable to teachers. This contrasted

the majority o other countries in the study

who chose social worker.

In Portugal only 12% o parents would

encourage their children to become

teachers, while over 50% would not

encourage them, a higher igure than or

any other country in the survey.

Portugal ranked in the lower hal o the Teacher Status

Index, with a score o 26.0. The country has a similar score

to nearby European countries. When ranking the quality

o their education system, Portuguese respondents lie

in the middle o the table assigning a score o 5.8/10.

However, when ranking quality o their teachers,

Portugal is positioned 5th rom the top o the table (with

a score o 6.6/10). This suggests Portugal shows greater

trust or their teachers than their education system. Most

respondents would support perormancerelated pay or

their teachers and on average suggest a air wage, which

is 13% higher than what teachers are currently paid. When

considering learning outcomes, Portugal perorms below

the country average on both PISA and TIMMS tests.

Responses to: Do you trust teachers to deliver a good education?

(Rating out o 10, 1 = low rating, 10 = high rating)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

READING

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS




493 499 522542

487 497 532529

489 495 541552

Teacher StatusIndex

10.53 23,260


KEY INDICATORS


43/60

Varkey GEMS Foundation | Teacher Status Index | 2013 | 43Country Profile | Singapore

SINGAPORE

N /A 37,144 46.3


Population(million)

GDP percapita ($)



KEY FINDINGS Singapore ranked 3rd highest on the

question o how the people rank

varkey gems foundation_2013 global teacher status index.pdf

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