A snapshot of the teaching workforce in the EU

The teacher workforce in the EU has a skewed profile, being predominantly female and relatively old. However, teaching is a highly visible profession where young people benefit from a diverse teaching force with a range of role models (this will also help fight stereotypes), and where working for equal access to the profession is a matter of equity. EU Member States cannot afford to limit the pool of candidates for teaching by effectively excluding a large share of the population and wasting potential talent (especially in light of staff shortages and a decline of interest in teaching careers)164_.

The teaching workforce in primary, lower and upper secondary schools in the EU is made up of 5 million people165_{.This group is constituted predominantly of women (about 72 % of the total} workforce). Men are overall under-represented in teaching, with a low rate particularly in primary education (15 % at EU level and stable since 2010), and a significantly higher rate at upper secondary level (nearly 40 % at EU level). As shown in Figure 50 below, in some countries the rate of male teachers at primary level is lower than 10 %. In some of these countries (Lithuania, Slovenia, Hungary, Italy) this has been the case for some years.

At country level there are only a few countries (such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, the UK and Sweden) which saw a significant increase in the proportion of male teachers in primary education from 2010 to 2015. Most Member States are experiencing a slow, gradual decrease in the number of male teachers.

161 _{European Toolkit for Schools.}

162 _{European Commission, Joint Research Centre, DigCompOrg Framework.}

163 _{European Commission, Joint Research Centre, SELFIE, a self-assessment tool for digitally capable}

schools.

164 _{See: DG EAC (Study on the Diversity within the Teaching Profession with Particular Focus on Migrant}

and/or Minority Background. An ECORYS study for the European Commission.

165 _{Eurostat UOE personnel data, reference year 2015, counting teachers in primary (2.16 million), lower}

secondary education (1.94 million) and upper secondary general education (0.86 million), online data code [educ_uoe_perp01].

Figure 50 — Male teachers in primary education, 2000-2015

Source: Eurostat (UOE, tables educ_ uoe_perp01 and educ_pers1d). Denmark: 2014 data, Greece: 2012 data. EU total

calculated by DG EAC for 2000, 2005 and 2010. The data are ranked from lowest to highest in 2015.

The gender imbalance is larger in the youngest age group at each education level but gets gradually lower with higher levels of education. In particular, at EU level, 84 % of primary education teachers younger than 30 years old are women. In eight countries (Romania, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy) this rate exceeds 90 %. The imbalance is smaller among younger teachers at upper secondary level: at EU level 65 % of teachers at this level are women.

Figure 51 — Share of women among teachers aged less than 30 at different education levels, 2015

Source: DG EAC, based on Eurostat data (UOE, 2015). Online data code: [educ_uoe_perp01]. 2014 data for Denmark. Data about the share of teachers at lower secondary level are not available for Ireland in 2015. Countries are ordered from the lowest to the highest share of female teachers at primary level.

Some 36.5 % of teachers are 50 or older, whereas the youngest cohorts below 40 make up more than 30 %. However, this age pattern is not common everywhere, as Figure 52 shows. In Malta and the UK, around 25 % of teachers are below 30, while the share of teachers aged 60 or more is 2.3 % and 3.9 % respectively. By contrast, 63.7 % of teachers in Italy are more than 50 years old (and 20.5 % are more than 60 years old), making Italy the EU country with by far the oldest teaching population. Countries with a high share of teachers who will be retiring in

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% LT SI HU IT BG CZ HR LV AT EE SK RO IE DE NL MT PL EU UK CY FR BE PT FI SE ES LU EL DK 2015 2010 2005 2000 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% DK SE LU ES FI PL UK EE BE EU PT LV IE EL CY BG MT SK NL LT FR RO HR CZ DE AT HU SI IT Primary (ISCED 1) Lower secondary (ISCED 2) Upper secondary (ISCED 3)

the next years may find themselves facing shortages of teachers. Hence, raising the attractiveness of the teaching profession to educate young teachers is a central recommendation of EU policy in this area166_.

Given this situation, it is also necessary to closely monitor the development of the school-aged populations and with that adjust the teacher population over time. Forward planning linking demographic developments in the student population with planned teacher supply is common in the large majority of European countries167_.

Figure 52 — Age groups of teachers (ISCED 1-3), 2015

Source: Eurostat, UOE, online data code [educ_uoe_perp01].

Reading note: Denmark: 2014 data. Ranked from highest to lowest percentage of teachers aged 50 and more.

Working part-time is another common characteristic of the teacher population in many Member States. ‘Part-time’ as measured here is defined as educational personnelemployed for less than 90 % of the normal or statutory working hours of educational personnel in the same job or role at the given level of education168_{. As shown in Figure 53, there is a wide spread across Member} states and educational levels in the proportion of teachers working part-time. Overall at EU level, more teachers work part-time in upper secondary education (29 %) than in primary education (23.6 %). In comparison, at EU level around 17% of the active workforce works part- time.

At primary level, more than 40 % of teachers in the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg work part-time, whereas less than 10 % do so in mainly southern and eastern European countries such as Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Romania and Bulgaria. This picture differs somewhat at upper secondary level, where more than 50 % work part-time in the United Kingdom, but also in Croatia, the Netherlands and Estonia. In many countries (Estonia, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Poland, Lithuania, Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Hungary and Slovenia) there are significantly more teachers working part-time at upper secondary level than at primary level169_.

The reasons for teachers working part-time are less well documented at an international comparative level and only some tentative issues appear. It may reflect a tradition for part-time work as in the Netherlands where close to 40% of the active population works part-time. Many workers also work part-time in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Denmark (between 20 and 25%),

166 _{See Section 3.1 of COM(2017)248final.}

167 _{See Eurydice (2013): 'Key data on teachers and school leaders in Europe' chapter B (figure B1) and}

(2014): 'The Teaching Profession in Europe' Section 5.1 (Figure 5.1).

168 _{UOE manual, volume I, section 2.6.}

169 _{The common OECD-Eurydice data collection on instruction time focuses on the statutory number of}

teaching hours per year. See Education at a Glance, indicator D4.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% IT BG EE LT LV DE AT CZ NL SE EL HU SK EU FI PT SI ES DK FR HR PL RO BE IE CY LU UK MT Less than 30 30-39 40-49 50-59 60 or over

whereas working part-time is much more seldom in predominantly Eastern and South-Eastern European countries (less than 9% in Estonia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, - and less than 4% in Romania and Bulgaria).

For the teacher profession, a high degree of part-time working could in some places suggest that teachers have taken up an offer of flexibility. This may help make teaching attractive in the light of, for example, family obligations, but could potentially be a problem for the system if taken up by too many.

In other systems part-time working is a reflection of oversupply/underemployment. For example, in Lithuania there is an oversupply of teachers and scarce teaching hours are distributed among serving staff.

Figure 53 — Teachers working part-time in primary and upper secondary education, 2015

Source: Eurostat, UOE table [educ_uoe_perp02].

Reading note: Data not available for Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland and Finland. Countries ranked from highest to lowest share of part-time teachers in primary education.

Depending on the definition, part-time working may also reflect potentially precarious situations where teachers have to take on several ‘part-time’ jobs at different schools (such situations may not be captured by aggregate statistics). This could be the case for upper secondary education, where teachers have a higher subject specialisation, which could potentially make it more difficult for them to obtain full hours.