What planet are the teachers of Ireland living on? Judging by yesterday's protest in Dublin, it's a different one to the rest of us.

Education cuts are hardly a welcome development, but between the economy, the banks, unemployment and the looming prospect of a lengthy depression, what is welcome these days? So before any more time and energy is wasted on protests, the teachers should start to get real.

Nobody wants to see pupil-teacher ratios rise, particularly in classes of younger children. Parents of children who have passed through the primary school system have seen the benefit of smaller class sizes within their own families. The quality of education that is now offered, particularly to primary school children in smaller, better-equipped classes, complete with classroom assistants and special needs help, is vastly superior to the school experience of older brothers and sisters who went through the same system eight or 10 years ago.

But as disappointing as these cuts are, we are not going back to the really bad days, and if teachers were a bit more flexible and a bit less hysterical, there would be no need for children to suffer at all, especially as many of the schools in particularly disadvantaged areas have been ringfenced from cuts.

Last week, as teachers rallied the troops and prepared pithy puns for their placards for yesterday's march, we learned that tax returns for November were far worse than predicted and that the financial shortfall for the year could top €8 billion. We also had a frightening set of unemployment statistics that left economists gloomier than ever about next year, with a rate as high as 10% now looking likely (though very few teachers are likely to be among them). Eurozone interest rates were cut but British interest rates were cut even further, prompting what could turn into a currency crisis. As queues to Newry lengthen, there are fears that a lot of the €3bn pumped back into our pockets by the last two interest rate cuts could be spent north of the border.

Against that background, it seems absurd that teachers are protesting against the withdrawal of substitution for uncertified sick leave; this costs the taxpayer over €16 million a year, with cover for certified leave and other absences now over €280 million. That so much money was ever pumped into a sick pay system devoid of consequences for people – albeit a minority – who think they are "entitled" to a certain number of sick days every year, was always wrong. Today, it seems obscene.

A lot of parents who have lost jobs, who are on two- or three-day weeks or who are perilously close to unemployment are losing patience with teachers because they seem oblivious to the relatively small sacrifices they are being asked to make compared to the scale of the crisis facing people in exposed sectors.

Nobody, not even in the most profitable firms in this country, has an "allowance" of 30 days' sick leave without certification, as primary and secondary teachers do. Nobody is allowed to take three consecutive days off before being asked to provide a doctor's cert, as primary teachers are – and four days in the case of secondary teachers – especially when they work for a maximum of 167 days a year. They don't work anti-social shifts, they don't work weekends or nights and they already enjoy generous holidays.

Like Batt O'Keeffe, everyone knows teachers are often brilliant, dedicated and hardworking. That is reflected in the pay, pensions, supervision allowances, increments and sick benefits they enjoy. Most work about 22 hours a week actually teaching. It cannot be that hard for them to devise a system within individual schools to cover for sick colleagues – just as people cover for sick workmates in most firms – without the need for extra pay or expensive substitution.

The Department of Education budget for next year is one of the few that has actually increased. It now stands at €9.6 billion; 80% of this is allocated to staff pay, and rightly so, because education is all about human contact and personal inspiration.

But just as the minister has successfully re-tendered for capital projects to get better value from the private sector in the school building programme, there can be no logical reason why teachers can't use all this energy they are expending on protests to find ways to create greater efficiencies in tough times – as they say themselves, for the sake of the children.