I found it interesting that my last entry concerned teacher wages, and the next day, the government made a deal, ensuring beginning and experienced teachers a substantial pay rise, however, with certain conditions.
In the Australian press, the pay rise read to be more than generous, but as with all governments, one must justify one's spending.
In a staff meeting on Tuesday, the Union press release was read aloud to all staff. Not having read the document, the piece sounded like a convoluted mess.
A "give and take" deal that really made no sense.
The most ludicrist of all was that teachers must work an extra 10 minutes a day.
Excuse me?
Let me just say, teachers work more hours than the ratified Union agreements - aside from "face to face" teaching, there is lesson planning, phone calls to parents at unusual hours, lunch time detentions, after school detentions; coaching sport, rehearsing, after school and at lunch, the school's next theatrical performance. Enforced "personal development" time, when you are concerned about a student whose parents have booted them out and they now sleep on the school's oval.
(Today a student's parent rang up and said "We're moving, and I expect the school to feed my boy." So we spend our time finding ways to feed the boy during the week and hoping he has a roof over his head.)
The list goes on but there is no point. Unless you are a true teacher, committed to the learning and welfare of your students, no one, not even our politicians, have a clue.
To be sure, I'm thankful for the pay rise, although souding like an acountants nightmare of percentages, over years, might come true, eventually.
As written in the last BLOG, everyone "thinks" being a teacher is a cake-walk, but when 50% of all beginning teachers quit after only three years, should tell us that it is a difficult profession and society should treat it as such and reward it as such, otherwise, what will our future hold?
No comments:
Post a Comment