(jmh/CS) The Luxembourg state employs around 9,700 teachers, equivalent to 4.6 percent of the overall workforce, with salaries paid annually amounting to over one billion euros.

The majority of teachers (5,480) work at primary school level, while 4,220 teachers are employed at the country's lycées.

Last year, teacher salary spending amounted to 1.04 billion euros. The previous year, on average, civil servant teachers received a net salary of 76,600 euros per year, around 6,300 per month, according to national statistics office Statec. The latter has also found that teacher salaries have increased by 83 percent since 1995.

Below is a graph showing the development of different sectors of the Luxembourg economy. It shows that the percentage of teachers in the overall workforce has remained largely stable over the past two decades.

Luxembourg teachers earn the highest salaries in Europe, OECD data shows, but the same cannot be said of student performance. In the latest edition of the Pisa education survey, Luxembourg's public school students scored below average in all test areas.

The increasing number of teachers has meanwhile not had a beneficial effect on student achievement rates, as the below graph highlights.

Teacher unions meanwhile warn of directly linking wages and student performance. The reality of being a teacher cannot be summarised in numbers, they say, criticising a lack of respect for the profession. SEW president Patrick Arendt commented that conditions have become more difficult and that recruitment of qualified staff has not become any easier.

Currently policy-making was only adding to the problems, he commented.

Education Minister Claude Meisch recently announced that the government is cutting teacher salaries during the summer exams period to hours only actually spent in class, rather than regular wages.

The announcement prompted over 1,000 teachers to resign from their positions on the country's school exam boards. However, the resignations were refused by the minister, who said that students should not be taken hostage over the dispute. In return, unions recommended that teachers should stage a silent protest at the board meetings.

On the other hand, the government is to increase school spending by 10.6 percent until 2018, with the money going towards new infrastructure projects and other education related costs, but not teacher salaries.