By Richard Mann
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The salary of the Brazilian public school teacher is “horrible”, according to one of the greatest education specialists in Brazil, researcher Maria Inês Fini, in an interview with UOL. She is the former president of INEP (National Institue of Educational Researches Anísio Teixeira).
Maria Inês Fini commented on the teacher’s current wage floor of R$2,557 (US$640) per month, and on the OECD’s (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) survey released on Tuesday, June 19th, showing teachers’ salaries in Brazil in the lowest rankings among the countries surveyed. The OECD’s survey, in which Maria Inês Fini took part, analyses teaching conditions in the world. According to her, in addition to the salary, there are two other fundamental problems in Brazilian education: working conditions and the training of teachers.
“A teacher in São Paulo has three jobs to earn a decent salary. He cannot devote himself to a single school, to the same group of students, he coexists less with his family. As a result, his performance declines,” explained Fini.
The OECD advisory sent a supplementary document to the UOL displaying a list of salaries for 48 countries surveyed by the organization. Income figures are analyzed according to educational level, from early childhood education to secondary education, and professional experience.
In early childhood education, Brazil is in the 30th position among 33 countries where the organization was able to collect information. In primary and secondary school, Brazilians are in the last position among the 40 countries where wage data are available.
High school figures, in US$, per year:
| Country | Starting salary | Top of career salary |
|---|---|---|
| (1st) Luxembourg | 79,551 | 138,279 |
| (2nd) Switzerland | 71,249 | 109,240 |
| (3rd) Germany | 63,866 | 92,386 |
| OECD average | 34,943 | 59,639 |
| European average | 33,871 | 58,736 |
| (40th) Brazil | 13,971 | without information |