I have been teaching for 5 years (6 years if I count my year as a trainee teacher) and so far I have been teaching in 10 different schools!! Three days ago I was informed that I had, at last, obtained a teaching post in a school. To me this means that I will not have to wait until 4-5 days before school starts to know where I am supposed to teach! This is a big improvement in my career as a teacher! Less stress too!

Now, in France, you cannot really choose the school in which you want to teach. You have to make a list of wishes and the school authorities will �sort out� everything for you!! This means that in France, we don�t have to go through interviews. Each teacher has a certain number of points depending on their experience, their marital status, the number of children they have. So when you are a single teacher at the beginning of her career, leaving with someone but not married to him, with no children, you don�t have a lot of points and you get � nothing! The more points you have, the more likely you are to get the school you want.

Every time I asked to teach in a junior high school, I ended up teaching in a high school. And every time I asked to teach in a high school, I ended up teaching in a junior high school. This year I asked to teach in a high school and guess what?, yes, I�ll be teaching in a junior high school for the I-don�t-know-how-many years to come. Even though I like teaching at both levels, I am �destined� to teach at the high school level. This is what my school authorities have been telling me right from the beginning, but in the end, they have decided to appoint me to a junior high school!!

I hate the French system!

How do you end up teaching in your schools in your respective countries? Are you appointed? Do you have to go through interviews?

Hello Frenchfrog,

What an amazing teaching system you have in France!!!  I lived there for about 18 months, but I had no idea that this was how teachers were appointed.  I can�t believe that your points system takes into consideration such things as whether you�re married or not and how many children you have!?!? There would be absolute uproar in Ireland if this were the case. I�m afraid that our system is much more boring.  We attend interviews and generally, qualifications, experience and personality are the main criteria used when selecting teachers.  �Pull� helps as well!! By �pull�, I mean knowing or being connected with the right people.

Helen  

Thanks for answering my post!

Hi Frechfrog,

Congratulations on getting a post. The Greek Public school system is very similar to the way you describe the French. When you have passed the exams to get a public teaching post you can have a choice of either primary or secondary education. English is taught from the 3rd year of primary school. You also get to pick the area. There�s a chart that has teacher vacancies and is published every year. After that it �s just like the French. You are placed where you are needed within a specific area (city, region, etc) that you have listed. Also we can apply for a change of position after the first year.  Whether your change is approved depends on the number of points you have. Points are given like in France:  marital status, number of children and  experience according to the number of point of the public schools  where you�ve taught in the past. For example, each year you are allotted one point, but you are also allotted points depending on the position of your school. A school in the city only has one point, but a school in a village far away from the major city may have 6 or seven points per year. So, you see our system is even worse than yours. Still it is better than working in the private sector because the major difference with the Greek system is that it is almost impossible to be released or fired once you�ve successfully completed your first year although this isn�t always fair. We don�t go through interviews, we are simply appointed and unfortunately many get very lazy within the first five years. We are not even evaluated although the Ministry is finally trying to do something about this. Still as you see things are not that different. I am in charge of all EU projects at my school and I have visited over half of the EU countries and I can tell you one thing for certain: None of the teachers I have met are satisfied with their educational system.  So enjoy your appointment.  And good luck in your new school.

Maria