Sir, - Like the first cuckoo of spring, we have come to expect the annual certainty of a conference delegate comparing teacher's salaries with those in the IT sector. What planet are these people on ?
IT workers do not have nearly four months' paid holiday a year. IT workers do not spend 22 hours a week at their jobs (and please, spare us the thousands of hours copy-correcting after school). IT worker's pay-scales are tightly bound to productivity: produce the goods or you're out. And, guess what, teachers do not have a monopoly on stress; ask any bank official, sales rep or working mother (of the eight-hour day variety) who has to take time off to attend parent-teacher meetings.
Your Education Editor, Sean Flynn, has hit the nail on the head (The Irish Times, April 27th) . Private sector pay-scales come with private sector work conditions and holidays. - Yours, etc.,
Anne Walsh, Ballintemple, Cork.