Should teachers be allowed to strike?

[Scruff 10]

I think most teachers do a great job. Alot of my friends are teachers and they are in work by 8am and dont get in until 5ish. So they dont just get off when the kids do. Plus they spend most weekends and a parts of their holidays lesson planning. But then thats what they trained to do

[donkey 10]

 

should teachers be allowed to strike,

 

what do you think?

 

There was a time when nobody was allowed to strike, and I'm sure the government and big bussiness would love to see a return to that situation. I don't think it would be feasible to prohibit teachers strike action without provoking a major reaction from the unions. Maybe if MPs stopped awarding themselves huge pay rises, they could use the money they save to pay teachers a rise that's in line with inflation.

[taxman 12]

Maybe if MPs stopped awarding themselves huge pay rises, they could use the money they save to pay teachers a rise that's in line with inflation.

 

Now if MP's went on strike would we notice?

[donkey 10]

Now if MP's went on strike would we notice?

 

But who would we get to blather on endless spin and rubbish? I suppose we could hire an advertising agency to run the country and another one to sit in 'opposition.' It would surely be a cheper way to run the place, and I don't think we would notice much difference.

[mel77 10]

i think they have a pretty good deal. Mon to fri, no weekends, lates or b/h's good pay and 15 weeks holiday a year...what more do they want!?!

[mel77 10]

Nice one , they would have to give me more than £14 an hour as well.

 

im a school nurse working in a school with teachers! and i dont get as much as them!

[fanfa 10]

i think they have a pretty good deal. Mon to fri, no weekends, lates or b/h's good pay and 15 weeks holiday a year...what more do they want!?!

 

No weekends?! lol Have worked part of every weekend of every of my 15 years as a teacher.

 

No lates? 9pm got home last night. Usually get home about 6pm

 

B/hs? Don't know what that is.

 

Good pay? Agreed. I am satisfied with current pay. That's not to say I won't change my mind about that in the future. There are many jobs like mine where pay is only satisfactory.

 

15 weeks hol? 12 weeks...and I work some of them. The rest of them I sit around and gloat that I am not providing child care for 12 weeks...or at least that seems to be what some ppl think we teachers are doing.

 

What more do I want? Some support/recognition from the public for the bloody brilliant work teachers do for our kids

[Anna K 10]

i think they have a pretty good deal. Mon to fri, no weekends, lates or b/h's good pay and 15 weeks holiday a year...what more do they want!?!

 

Have you bothered to read any of the postings from teachers?

[Little Buzz 10]

as for teachers not being paid as much as other post grad positions ... no other post grad positions are 38 week per year, teachers work aprox 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 38 week per year ... Im no mathamatision but that works out at over £14 per hour .... not bad eh?

 

Teaching isn't 38 weeks a year, 8 hours a day or 5 days a week. I know, I was that teacher. If my maths is correct your maths are based on a salary of £21,280. I was on a bit more than that when I was teaching, but your hours are way out. I was working about 55 to 60 hours a week - and more at this time of year when all the coursework starts coming in - I used to mark and monitor progress on the coursework of 30 A-level students, many of whom were doing 2 lots, some of whom who were doing 4 lots because the teacher I took over from had not made them hand anything in for a year. It was about 60 lever arch files a week of marking - not all of it new, but I had to trawl through to find the modified bits because very few understood the phrase 'put anything new or changed at the front of your folder'!

 

On a half term holiday (5 days) I would work about 8 hours, and in term holidays (10 days) I would work about 20. In the summer I had to come into school on two days (16 hours) and would spend about 30 hours on preparation.

 

I make that 2100 to 2300 hours a year, which at what I was earning is about £11 an hour. And for that I had to put up with the stress of kids misbehaving and being disinterested, the stress of their parents wanting to know why their apathetic idiot of an offspring wasn't going to get an A*, and the general derision of a society convinced I had the easiest job in the world.

 

I don't teach any more.

[Anna K 10]

I used to work with a lovely (and very able) teaching assistant who finally decided to go to uni to do a teaching degree, reasoning that she might as well get paid the proper rate for the job.

 

When she finally got into teaching she lasted just over two years. She said no amount of working in school had prepared her for the reality of teaching ful time. She couldn't believe the amount of paperwork she was expected to do and all the rest besides. Just to keep up she was expected to eat, breath and sleep the job.

 

She was last seen happily working in sales where she was earning far more than she would have done teaching.

[RosyRat 10]

I do supply teaching in FE. I am paid £48 per 3 hour session (before tax) and that is classroom teaching time only. In my own time I have to prepare lessons, put the resources together (involving internet and other research, preparing handouts and photocopying), set asssignments, mark work and prepare the student subject reviews and assessments. The students I teach are great, but their behaviour is often challenging. I do the work because I love it and because the young people I teach need and deserve a decent education and a job, even if they are not academic achievers. Some of the ignorance on this thread is appalling, but not knowing what you're talking about doesn't seem to stop people from posting. How sad to think that some of these people are parents.

[EdnaKrabappe 14]

Nope, it's ok as it is. All members have a vote. Whether 1% or 99% decide to use that vote, the majority of that democratic vote should stand. Just because 70% of teachers in the NUT were apathetic is not a point. They should have voted NO to action, which was their entitlement if they so wished.

 

Oh, and an average teachers salary is £33,000 by the way.

 

The mean salary is £33, 34 k that includes Secondary heads who probably earn in the 80ks so far (I don't know I'm not one)

The average teachers salary is actually 20,133 as there are more NQTs than ever in school due to the amount of people leaving the profession.