Meow

32 hours? That's a part time job.

People who have always worked in the public sector rarely realise that the alternative is not easier.

NorthernLad

It makes my blood boil when teachers (in fact most civil servants) give the sob story. They chose the profession, the pay is not bad, holidays I won't even mention, working hours are good.
I chose to work in the private sector, the pay is better but job security? Pension? Holidays? Working hours?
My sister is a teacher and I expect we will have the annual argument surrounding this come 25th December once the wine has been flowing.

shiva

32hrs most people I know hit that by Tuesday!

Victor Meldrew

You are speaking out of ignorance (in the literal sense, not the abusive sense so please don't take offence).

Most, good teachers work hours way beyond this, particularly in UK and also overseas. They probably may not work any longer than those (some/most/all I wouldn't know) in the private sector, but 32 hours per week is a joke and not representative of the real situation.

In the UK there are also many other things to endure, which most people would respond to with giving out a good thumping. I have seen teachers reduced to tears by 'children' abusing them verbally and physically and being told there is nothing that can be done about it.

The best option would be not to strike, but to work to rule, ie work to contract. So much time is now wasted in beurocracy and initiatives which quite honestly are literally a waste of time. Time which would be better spent on teaching.

Oyibopeppeh

My parents were also both teachers, Dad was head of department and Mum worked as a special needs (used to be called something a lot less PC back then) teacher.

My Dad used to work innumerable hours outside of school in order to differentiate himself from the run-of-the mill teachers, who were more concerned with brown nosing and their next promotion than educating their students. He even organised school trips in holiday time to take pupils to London, Edinburgh and other places.

Yes, there are teachers who do the bare minimum and are politicians rather than teachers - these are your militants who give the true professionals a bad name.

My Dad took early retirement at 58 after suffering a mild stroke as the result of the stress of his job.

khitan004

So teachers are useless are they? Can you all do your jobs? Can you all read what I have wrote? Are you all now thinking I should have written "written" instead of "wrote"? Can you add, divide, multiply and use logical reasoning? Do you know random pieces of crap about the Tudors?

Then thank a teacher. We do not do it for the adulation of those who have never done it, we do it for that one child who we make a difference with. As a teacher I was responsible for at least 150 children's education and wellbeing. If you think that looking after your 2 teenagers is difficult when you have a telly and playstation to distract them try teaching 30 of the buggers about how a tree works for an hour. Why can a teacher not strike when they only have maybe a third of parents turn up at parents' evening? Please don't be naive to think that a child's education starts and stops at school. They are a product of your parenting. I could tell what grades a child would get by looking at the parents.

There are good and bad teachers just as there are good and bad anything (especially kids). Saying all this, I still don't think I would strike. There is a myth (I actually don't know if this is true) that those who stick it out in teaching for a sizable chunk of their professional life die within 5 years of retirement anyway, so pensions are irrelevant.

Lorna at Vicenza

Is teaching still a vocation or just a job with a fixed wage and holidays?


When I was at school, and looking back, I'd say that most of my teachers had a real vocation. They really wanted to teach us and put their life being into it. Even if you, as a student, hated chemistry, you could tell that they really loved it.


Here in Italy, they stink. Most of them have some kind of cheap degree without any teacher training and the quality of school is shite. Foreign language teachers have never been out of the region let alone Italy. School is shite because schools are poor and have little or no resouces. Lessons are boring because school doesn't even own a microscope let alone a science lab.

AND the teachers are always striking at the last minute ... trade union meetings designed to cause the most havoc to working mums.

OleJanx

Hmm! strange. I had a few teachers who still believed in what they were supposed to do. They were the ones who inspired me.
On the down side were the unionised twonks who I regarded as bottom feeders, in it for the wrong reasons; the prats who left college and couldn't cope with the real world, so went back to school.
To use non-politically correct language, my mother was a remedial needs teacher, a job I would not like to do now, but, my parents, both of mining stock believed in giving back to the community, right up to the point where they got fed up being responsible for things beyond their control.
I trained as an adult literacy teacher. What a complete waste of my time,20% doing, 80% filling in officious nonsense, so, no I have no sympathy for the 32 hour week. It never happened. Contracted hours and reality are mutually exclusive concepts....
I would be very happy returning the learning I got, but there is too much faff and fartlement and utter frustration for me to look at it as a serious career again
My dad not only teached, he did too. Anyone who got their A.C.T., a one shot certificate probably knows who he is He had a 100% pass rate..
He was not too happy to work for a twunt who couldn't pass what he taught, but there you go, that is the Middle East for you...

typical

There are bad teachers. But every teacher I know who didn't take early retirement was dead within a year of having to leave school.

I come from a family of teachers. It's no longer that badly paid, and the pension's not bad, but no teacher is ever going to be rich. It's a very stressful job. Drop-out rates one year in are amazingly high.

There's no reason a final salary scheme couldn't be funded. The country should be trying to attract and retain the best teachers, not end up with those who can't get find private sector job.

The Tories always want public services on the cheap, and it doesn't work. More importantly, low quality teachers make for low quality education, and there are going to be fewer and fewer jobs for badly educated people as time goes on.

iamthestig

I thought it was from the kid's names?

Chardonnay, Courtney, Chelsea, Crystal, Callum, Aleisha, Kyle, Brooklyn...

khitan004

Usually names with unusual spellings.

lanarkwitch

I'd take all of that a bit further and say I don't believe public sector workers should have the right to strike, not anymore, these types of laws were useful and proper when the labour law sucked and no one had proper rights, the right to a pension and more money just cause we think we should have it, really isn't what it's all supposed to be about.

I'd be bloody hacked off as well over the bonus holiday/days industrial action.......

lanarkwitch

All govt want public services on the cheap, that's basic economics, bad education= generally good to have an uneducated population who will believe everything you tell them. I believe the US is firmly placing itself down this path.

Final salary schemes, it's not going to work, the quality of the teachers isn't really a factor there, there simply isn't enough money in the pot.

As with most public services the govt would prefer us to pay our Taxes into their pot, but also pay for private health and education, that's the reason I just don't want to go back there

typical

Not for sensible governments.

Not if they don't have jobs.

Well... that depends on the rules of the scheme. There's no reason a final salary scheme can't work in theory. Again, a country that is serious about being competitive in future needs to be investing in education.

It's not so long ago the Government simply couldn't attract enough graduates into teaching. This one looks set to head back in that direction.

Ethos83

Funny thing:

Labour poured billions into education during their 13 year reign.

During those same 13 years the standards of education dropped noticeably and UK standing on the various academic league tables also plunged.

Money obviously isn't the answer to everything. Besides, the money is now a moot point as there simply isn't money anymore thanks to New Labour's profligant and wasteful spending in the past decade.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...world-rankings