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Teachers' working hours and pay compares poorly to nursing and the police

Teachers’ average hourly pay has decreased by 15 per cent since 2009/10. This compares to falls of four and 11 per cent for nurses and police officers respectively.

Furthermore, the amount of extra holiday time that teachers may receive as part of the job is still exceeded by the long hours that they work.

The research has been carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) as part of its on-going Teacher Retention and Turnover project.

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the study is aiming to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics within the teacher workforce in England.

It finds that teachers work an average 50 hours-a-week during term-time. Furthermore, it warns that even when we take school holidays into account, teachers are still working the equivalent of 45 hours-a-week. This compares to 44 hours-a-week for police officers and 39 for nurses.

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