A Comparison of the Employment of Public Sector Teachers in EU and TURKEY

This paper presents and elaborates on a comparative picture of entry to the profession, employment status and conditions of service, replacement measures, and salaries, complementary payments and retirement of teachers working in public sector of education at ISCED 1, 2 and 3 levels in European Union countries and in Turkey. The study mainly figures out that teachers working in European state schools are employed generally in 3 different ways: (1) contractual status, (2) civil servant status, and (3) career civil servant status. In addition to these, ‘substitute’ or ‘replacement’ teachers are employed beginning from 1 day to several months or a full school year in place of absent teachers. Further, the requirements for such temporary employments vary. Concerning the conditions of service for teachers of the EU countries, they range from agreeing on a co-mutual and collective bargaining process based on relevant legislation to being recruited based on totally centralized arrangements. As for the retirement entitlement to a full pension, the common legal upper age limit in most of the EU countries is 65 years. As an overall conclusion, it may be stated that in the large majority of EU countries, teachers begin their professional career with short-term contracts, then based on their experience and qualifications gained during their professional teaching career they are employed for longer terms and eventually this status is mainly replaced that of civil servant status