I was merely responding to your entirely unsupported assertion with my own experience. I was careful to state it was "in my experience", perhaps I should have been clearer. I happen to know exactly 10 teachers, 4 of them extremely well, the others as acquaintances, as I very nearly was one before choosing another career.
It is extremely interesting offsetting their various stories with the stories reported by the various hues of media on the matter. There certainly doesn't seem to be the uniform competence and hard work that is often trumpeted in the more supportive media, although, I guess, nor is it quite the unalloyed gravy train that the less supportive media suggests.
It is undoubtedly true that very, very few teachers are ever sacked, I struggle to find current figures (as they are very well hidden for obvious reasons) but in 2010, 18 had been sacked in the last 40 years: http://www.bbc.com/news/10464617
- I remember watching this Panorama and being surprised because the BBC is normally very support of unionised labour being a unionised, tax funded body itself.
It is also worth noting that while enforced union membership is illegal in the UK the only way to secure the required insurance to teach in the State system is through the Union; so it is effectively still a 70s style "closed shop".
On balance, given the very beneficial terms of their employment, which are aggressively protected by a body task with simply doing that, I find it very hard to believe that most teachers work 11 to 12 hour days on a regular basis.