Teacher strike

jackieblack

Slowdown wrote: »

Perhaps if you to spend some time in a classroom you may understand that we are dedicated professionals devoting our lives and many hours of our own time to educating YOUR children.

No...... SOME of you are dedicated professionals

There is good and bad in every occupation.

spendingmad

Has anyone thought about the effect the proposed changes has on THEIR CHILDS future, yes they may lose a couple of days education, but people are also striking because jobs should be available to those children when they reach adulthood. If teachers, nurses, domestic assistants, porters, physios etc etc all have to work until 68 (even if they have a full 40years pension payment at 60) that is 8 years of someone not handing there job over to the young generation.

These 67/68 years olds in physically demanding jobs will not be performing at their best, and may well be very demotivated thus affecting sickness rates, making further strain for the NHS as they injure themselves. etc

Surely it is better to have younger generations paying taxes and doing a good job than having crippled elderly people on a higher rate of pay supporting youngsters on job seeking allowance.

To me (not public sector) taking that decision away from people is the big issue

lostinrates

spendingmad wrote: »

Has anyone thought about the effect the proposed changes has on THEIR CHILDS future, yes they may lose a couple of days education, but people are also striking because jobs should be available to those children when they reach adulthood. If teachers, nurses, domestic assistants, porters, physios etc etc all have to work until 68 (even if they have a full 40years pension payment at 60) that is 8 years of someone not handing there job over to the young generation.

These 67/68 years olds in physically demanding jobs will not be performing at their best, and may well be very demotivated thus affecting sickness rates, making further strain for the NHS as they injure themselves. etc

Surely it is better to have younger generations paying taxes and doing a good job than having crippled elderly people on a higher rate of pay supporting youngsters on job seeking allowance.

To me (not public sector) taking that decision away from people is the big issue

I don't have children, but I'm very foused on the next generations and the impact of this on them. In fact, is that that makes me accept that our household income must have very heavy taxation, that its probably likely by the time I'm ready tate pension will probably be means tested and a focus might well be on living well frugally and being more not less self provident, so next generations don't have such a huge inheritence (inevitably they'll have some) of our profligate spending, consumption and greed.

bagginslover

Lotus-eater wrote: »

If you want to earn more, become a private school teacher,

No don't, because you won't! Private doesn't equal higher pay. I work in a private school (no, I'm not a teacher, I'm a science tech, I'm not in a union, though if I were, I would be striking) and the teachers here get less pay, and do longer hours-we are a boarding school, and the teachers have to supervise in the houses until 10pm one night a week, and all day on a saturday or sunday twice a term. This in on tiop of the 9-5 teaching hours, marking and planning. Yes they get longer holidays, but when the hours are averaged out over the year, compaired to state teachers, they do MORE hours!

We don't yet know how many of our staff will be on strike, and I won't be here to see it either sadly as I am taking year 12 on a trip.

patchwork_cat

GobbledyGook wrote: »

There's always extreme examples of one thing or another in either the public or private sector if you look hard enough.

I know someone who is in the private sector who had 5 weeks paid compassionate leave after the death of her mother. I got 3 days after the death of my grandmother who was effectively my Mum as she brought me up and had to take 2 days annual leave because I wasn't entitled to the 5 days you'd get to organise the funeral of your parent.

That doesn't mean to say that I think everyone in the private sector has much better compassionate leave offered than the public sector. It just means that that person's boss/es gave them more time than mine could or would give me.

You were lucky to get 3 days for a grandmother, tbh. I got very little time for my parents deaths, and about a day for my grandparents, even though for 2 I was the next of kin and had to sort the funeral out for 1 from 60 miles away - I was also newly pregnant and it was a nightmare.

I am starting to sound like the 3 yorkshiremen and tbh that is why I will think twice before returning to work in public sector. As you don't the remuneration and now you don't even get the conditions of service.

patchwork_cat

spendingmad wrote: »

Has anyone thought about the effect the proposed changes has on THEIR CHILDS future, yes they may lose a couple of days education, but people are also striking because jobs should be available to those children when they reach adulthood. If teachers, nurses, domestic assistants, porters, physios etc etc all have to work until 68 (even if they have a full 40years pension payment at 60) that is 8 years of someone not handing there job over to the young generation.

These 67/68 years olds in physically demanding jobs will not be performing at their best, and may well be very demotivated thus affecting sickness rates, making further strain for the NHS as they injure themselves. etc

Surely it is better to have younger generations paying taxes and doing a good job than having crippled elderly people on a higher rate of pay supporting youngsters on job seeking allowance.

To me (not public sector) taking that decision away from people is the big issue

I am very concerned about this current 16 - 25 year olds. They are a generation that may never work. People do not have to retire any more and if they do not move out of the workplace and make room for teh next generation then by the time they do the then 22 - 30 year olds will effectively be unemployable and the next batch of 16- 21 year olds will fill those jobs.

Can you imagine a paramedic at 68 carrying someone down 4 flights of stairs in a block of flats. Or a nurse of 68 on a geriatric ward lifting patients possibly younger than themselves?

walby1993

WhiteHorse wrote: »

Quite frankly, from what I have seen of schoolteachers (or 'education facilitators' as they now like to be known), we would be better off if most of you were sacked.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: As a teacher I find this hilarious. Firstly, all the teachers I know refer to themselves as teachers not as 'education facilitators'. This is probably one of those crazy pc things like when it was annouced that binmen shouldn't be called binmen but "household waste disposal operatives" or similar. Secondly, the vast majority of teachers I have met are very good at their job. I would love you to get the general public to educate our children then we would be able to see just how "rubbish" the teachers are! Being as there are a large proportion of kids that can't read, write or count when they start school I wouldn't be too hopeful that parents as a group (not saying there wouldn't be exceptions, as there are also some awful teachers) could do even half a good a job, let alone better (would like to see parents/anyone who doesn't have teaching experience undertake controlled assessments, coursework marking, exam prep, etc)

But all of that is beside the point. The point of this is the Government is proposing to make teachers AND other public sector workers:
a) work till 68 (an extra 8 years)
b) increase their contributions significantly (for teachers from 6.4% to 10%)
c) Change from a pension based on final salary to a pension based on average salary

In my personal opinion, I would swallow one of those changes, possibly even two but all three is hard to take. Again, I also think it is outrageous that this is not having a graduated introduction.

Yes, I think most public sector workers work at least as hard, if not harder, than those in the private sector (I appreciate this is based on the individual jobs and is not always the case). However, we get paid significantly less. This has been accepted because there are benefits like a brillant pension scheme to make up for it. Take this away = less attraction to do the job = less entrants = a greater shortage of teachers/nurses etc than there is already = a dire education/healthcare/etc system.

No one has said that teachers and other public sector workers are special - I disagree with a lot the current government has done, including things that affect those in the private sector but because this hasn't been brought into the discussion (as it isn't relevant to the strike) people assume that teachers think they are better than everyone else.

Bufger

I always save a few days incase the little one is sick and i need to stay home. If i dont use them then i add them to my christmas break!

Like somebody else mentioned - Education is not primarily childcare and you cant just expect it to be available all the time so you can maximise the use of your holidays for sunny breaks. What about snow days or illness?

I also support the teachers on strike, the cuts theyre making to the pentions are completely terrible. I work in the private sector and my employer would never get away with it.

SingleSue

Well the teachers strike is now doing me a favour...no school equals no school run which means that I can get the meter changed, I missed them this morning whilst on the school run.

So it works out well for me but I am still concerned for their education, especially when I adhere to the rules of not taking the boys out during term time due to the adverse effects a day or two of unauthorised leave will have (according to the school)

Bufger

SingleSue wrote: »

Well the teachers strike is now doing me a favour...no school equals no school run which means that I can get the meter changed, I missed them this morning whilst on the school run.

So it works out well for me but I am still concerned for their education, especially when I adhere to the rules of not taking the boys out during term time due to the adverse effects a day or two of unauthorised leave will have (according to the school)

One day makes no noticable effect to a childs education. My parents took me out of secondary school during term time for a whole month for a tour of America. I took some school work with me and I still wasnt far behind the class when i got back and i considered myself average (got C's and D's at GCSE but now have a degree and a high earning job).

If you're that worried you can still make their day educational. You could even disguise it as fun if you wanted to put a bit of effort in :T

Its not only teachers that teach