do what needs doing ... if its stike for better conditions then do it with good luck and blessing
As someone who has never been a teacher, and never would be a teacher however much they were paid, I also support the NUT members who are striking.
They get my support a class romm full of mini male tan's and the rest of em all day is tough no matter what you say
I'm going to go on strike to get a payrise, to get sick pay, holiday pay, a fair return for my NI conributions...........
seems little point though, I'd only be hurting myself I'm self-employed.
I heard one woman being interviewed on the radio this morning who was 'struggling to survive on £20k', and thought to myself, I'd like that kind of struggle. Don't get me wrong, I think teachers do a great job, I know I couldn't do it, but I do think sometimes people take for granted what they already have. Having been an employer, on a very small scale, I can see it from both sides. At the end of the day that money has to come from somewhere, for the average school with, say 15 teachers, that's, at a bare minimum, an additional £6,000 a year to be found on top of the pay increase they've already been given.
H.x
It was only one of the unions that decided to strike, based on a ballot where only about 34% of the voters felt stronly enough to vote, and even then only a slight majority voted to strike. The other major teaching unions voted to accept the pay offer they'd been given.
H.x
The mythical 13 weeks.
Children go to school for 195 days. This means that children are off school for 13 weeks. However, teachers have 5 training days when the children are off, leaving 12 weeks. 5 bank holidays fall within school holiday periods - Christmas day, Boxing Day, Good Friday, Whit Monday and August bank holiday - the general population will have those off work as additional to their holiday entitlement.
Most equivalent professionals will have at least 25 days holiday per annum, plus those 5 bank holidays that teachers don't benefit from. The difference is now down to 6 weeks. Most teachers that I am acquainted with would work at least 25 days (or 5 working weeks) in a year doing school work outside of their contracted time - that's less than every Sunday marking and preparing during term time.
Teachers maybe should get out of the kitchen if it's too hot, but then again those who think teaching's an easy life and gives better conditions than they have could always train to be a teacher and get some of the gravy themselves.
no suport from me .... sorry
i dont agree with striking at all
i do work for the education dept tho but wouldnt get a pay rise thu this action anyway
Are they fighting for a pay-rise for the teaching assistants too? They are payed far worse than teachers and in my sister's case spend half the time babysitting the pre-teen asbos and the rest of the time 'helping' in class which often means bailing the teacher out when they get something wrong.
Don't get me wrong there are thousands of fantastic teachers out there but there are also far too many lazy, uneducated or inexperienced (in life) teachers. Teaching assistants are often older, are regularly left in charge of classes and get the worst kids and jobs going - and they are paid peanuts.
I am not a teacher but i have a PGCE (teacher training) and it nearly killed me. LIterally, i was rushed into hospital and kept in intensive care on a central line for a week because my body started to metabalise itself to get the energy to survive.
When on teaching practice, I got 4 hours sleep a night, never got all the work done that i felt i should do, and was constantly aware that young lives were being directly impacted upon by my words and actions.
Yes, kids are in school for a short time but the rest of the time a teacher is marking, assessing, planning lessons, setting appropraite work, creating resources, creating a stimulating and interactive learning environment, the list goes on and on.
Just because a teacher is not in school does not mean that he or she is not working. Much work is done at home, as the teacher tries to achieve some sort of work/life balance.
Many teachers retire early, before 60, simply from burn out. Maintaining this level of work along with the intensity and passion to motivate children to learn is incredibly demanding. You give all day.
Teaching assistant should not be used as babysitter or given the difficult children. This is incredibly bad classroom management, and does not use the TA efficiently as a rescource to earn learning. If anything, the "difficult" children should be with the teacher, who has the most training to faciliatate their learning.
People who doubt that good teaching is an intensly demanding job cannot have tried it. People have commented on particular schools or teachers that are poor and noted as failing - well these schools clearly are not the norm and so should not be used to berate staff in successful schools.
Teachers have the legal right to strike. It has been 20 years since the last teacher strike, so it is clearly not an option that they use willy-nilly. Teachers are not demanding a huge pay rise, simply that their pay keeps inline with inflation.
Yes it can be argued that teachers earn a lot. However, to become a teacher i studied at university for 5 years. During this time i did not earn a wage but i did take on a lot of debt to fund my studies. Why should a teacher's wage not reflect this level of commitment and investment?
Rant over. Thanks for reading
Trix xx
Well, I was going to post but I think Trixie and Nola, amongst others, summed it up nicely.
FB - on PPA time and about to start work.
I think every working person has the right to withdraw their labour to secure better pay and conditions. In these post Thatcherite days many forget the contribution trade unions have made to welfare education and employment.
Teachers have been offered a poor pay deal. So have the police and nurses and every other public worker simply because thats a very easy way to cut costs for government. Some are unlucky enough not to be able protest because they have no rights to withdraw their labour.
The main problem is that if any political party promised a fair pay deal for these key vocational workers we the voter wouldn't vote for em because we wouldn't stomach the associated tax increases necessary.
Bear in mind that 20% of UK workers work in the public sector according to the NSO. Assuming an average salary of £25k pa thats what 5 million x £25k that means a total wage bill of £125,000,000,000. Which in words is £125 billion. So 10% across the board will cost £12.5 billion.
£12.5 billion divided by the total working population of about 25 million and thats £500 each.
Now I reckon that would cost about maybe a penny or two on the basic rate of tax. Anybody up for voting for that?