Teachers’ income

Every investigation, worldwide, as to what determines quality education has always found that the main factor is not modern electronic gadgetry but the quality of the teachers.

Good teachers have the aptitude, ability and training to transmit knowledge in an inspiring, engaging and easily understood and memorised fashion. No wonder, therefore, that correspondents have expressed concern that teachers’ current unhappiness with their level of remuneration may lead to further deterioration in the quality of our primary and secondary state education.

John Vassallo (December 2) calculates that, based on a comparison of German and Maltese GDP, Maltese teachers ought to be asking for a 200 per cent rise. I don’t think this is a fair comparison and a realistic calculation. Countries have different levels of national insurance tax, some of them more than twice Malta’s (and charged of all the salary and not on part of it as with higher Maltese salaries), many countries have higher VAT than us and all EU countries (except us) have some form of annual tax on their property ownership wealth.

Perhaps Dom Mintoff’s socialism made more sense (certainly to the people at the bottom) than the current ‘champagne socialism’. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

Some months ago, I learnt from an Eddy Privitera contribution that Dom Mintoff had proposed such a property wealth tax, but it was ditched by Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. Mature societies overseas use a property wealth tax to enhance the level of welfare to the poorer sectors of the population. Some US states have a tax on accumulated wealth (property) but no tax on effort (no income tax).

Our explosion of property prices (also related to overpopulation) is the root cause of our inflation in all commercial sectors and which has widened considerably the chasm between the rich and the poor. To make matters worse for the poor, instead of introducing a property wealth tax, John Dalli had increased VAT from 15 per cent to 18 per cent, making practically everything more expensive.

I agree with Vassallo that we have every right to compare salaries of persons of trust with those of teachers.

Lino Briguglio, a veteran economist (from Mintoff’s time), recently explained what GDP actually means to the common man, noting that, although we boast of one of the highest GDP increases of EU countries, some of us have enriched themselves to the detriment of many others. Perhaps Mintoff’s socialism made more sense (certainly to the people at the bottom) than the current ‘champagne socialism’. 

Albert Cilia-Vincenti – Attard