Spain, in the top 5 OECD countries with the most high school teachers without an indefinite contract

Barcelona"The strength of educational systems depends on that of their teachers [...] and it is increasingly difficult to attract, train and retain high-quality teachers". With this premise, the OECD has focused its 2026 report on the state of education —the Education at a Glance— on the shortage of teachers and the measures that can be taken to address it. Among the many data analyzed by the international body is the temporary nature of teachers' contracts, a variable in which Spain clearly comes off poorly. According to the report, the Spanish state is the fifth OECD country with the highest percentage of high school teachers without a permanent contract.

Specifically, and with data from 2024, the study points out that in Spain there are 30.8% of high school teachers with non-permanent contracts, a percentage that is only exceeded by four countries out of the forty analyzed by the OECD: Portugal (32.6%), the United States (34.4%), Brazil (36.5%) and Costa Rica (44.2%). On the other hand, the OECD average in this regard stands at 19.3% of secondary school teachers with a temporary contract, and that of the European Union at 17.7%. The ranking of countries with greater stability for high school teachers is led by Lithuania, where only 7.6% of secondary school teachers do not have a permanent contract, New Zealand (7.1%), France (6.3%), Latvia (3.8%) and Denmark (3%).

Above the OECD in salary satisfaction

The report also focuses on the attractiveness of the profession and how hiring professionals who did not choose teaching as their first option can be a way to address the teacher shortage. In this sense, in Spain, 11.4% of secondary school teachers began teaching after having worked in another sector for more than ten years. A proportion that falls to 8.6% in the European average and to 8.4% in the OECD as a whole. Although Spain is at the top of the ranking in terms of teachers who have chosen this profession as a second option, it is far from countries such as the United States, the Netherlands, New Zealand, or Iceland, which exceed 15% of secondary school teachers who have found a second working life in the classroom.

Although in Catalonia it has been one of the main reasons for protest by educational unions, the report points out that satisfaction with the salary of teachers in the State is higher than the OECD average. While in the OECD as a whole only 38.5% of high school teachers are satisfied with their salary, in Spain this proportion rises to 54.2%. A similar situation is detected when asking about satisfaction with working conditions in general, excluding salary: in the OECD as a whole, 68.4% of high school teachers are satisfied, while in Spain 71.5% of secondary school teachers view their working conditions favorably.