Should teachers be banned from striking?

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I cannot agree with the bit in bold more. I had a teacher who had a first class honours degree from Oxford in Economics and offers to work at some very prestigious investment firms which he turned down to teach. He's probably the most influential teacher I've ever had and that was because he loved his subject and had a desire to improve the education of his students, he didn't take the job because of its pay, hours or holidays which it feels like some teachers do.

Who the **** is taking a teaching job for the money?! Christ, most teachers are lucky to see 50k in their career, some lucky grads start on that, plenty will earn it by 30.

My parents are both heads, and I'll still out earn them by 25, the money teaching's awful, you do it for the hols.

Reply 21

Dalek1099

The big problem is that teachers have took the mick out of striking striking every year no matter what happens if you gave them £10,000 a year more they would probably still strike once a year.I think people should strike only when a serious issue comes up maybe like these teacher pensions but the teachers lost all public sympathy over this issue by striking every year for more and more money even though they are getting a reasonable wage around £20,000 per year.Yes they do work on average a lot more than most people but this is a consequence of the major positives of the job having lots of weeks off and a huge amount of flexibility over when they can do their work only having to come in 9-3 for 5 days a week.Every job has its pros and cons just like teaching if they didn't like it then they should have gone into another job. Teachers get paid a lot more than the average person in the UK and far more than the rest of the world-they should be grateful to have a job in the current economic climate.My general rule for striking is that you should only strike for an issue if there isn't much worse things to strike for and with the events that go on around the world I severely doubt there isn't much more major things to strike for-once the more important things like famine,war,real poverty etc have been dealt with then you can strike for teaching.

Reply 22

Reece Sure

Teachers shouldnt just not be banned from striking, but they should infact be held in higher regard and given more powers and status. Our teachers should be high in line in social standing amongst doctors, lawyers etc

They are the individuals responsible for the education of our youth. Educating the next up and coming generation should have huge emphasis placed on it, much like they do in Finland. They should be the most admired profession in regular opinion. Teachers in Finland are required to have masters degrees, and are afforded much smaller classes thanks to an abundance of talent aspiring towards the profession. (Finland's teacher to student ratio is 1:12 on average, comparable to NYC's 1:24 ratio, both with the same number of teachers). Coupled with the facts that their high school graduation rate is 93% (comparable to Canada's 78%, 75% in US), about 2 in 3 of Finland's students going on to University and with regards to the international PISA test, they remain the highest scoring country of any European nation.

The last thing we need to be doing is further diminishing our Teachers. Great message your sending out there, you can always rely on the press to attempt to continue to destroy one of the last remaining professions with any decent trade unions left.

Reply 23

username1456920

Original post by Changing Skies

But I don't mean that applies to everything in terms of money, just your job. I think you should get out what you put in. I do think having a hard working job should mean you get paid more than someone who has a fairly easy going job. I'm not an idiot, I know life isn't fair and that you don't always get what you deserve, but that's how I believe it should be.

But they don't protest so often that it affects a child's education! If they were protesting every week or every month, my opinion would be different. But it's a rare event that really, in general, causes no harm at all.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Everybody, well most people think they work hard at their job and think they deserve higher pay. Should everyone just go on strike because they believe they deserve more?

How can you say that so confidently? I remember there was a strike close to the dates of my A-Level examinations, past papers were not marked, essential last minute teaching to fill any gaps in knowledge were rushed and probably affected students confidence going into exams.

It also set a pretty bad example. If you don't get what you want, whine until you do, which is essentially what they're doing when they strike. When I take my cousin to the shop he's about 6 and he wants something and I refuse he'll stand there and refuse to leave the shop, because he think he deserves it, it's pretty much the same with teachers.

Reply 24

username1456920

Original post by Le Nombre

A combination of the money and holidays is what I should have said.

Reply 25

Jordooooom

Original post by TSA

Of course it's an issue of greed. If you are being paid more than minimum wage it's more than enough money to buy the necessities and live.

Where do you draw the line one day of strikes okay? Two? One week? One month? There is no need to cause unnecessary disruption due to greed.

Oh my how clueless you are. I think you should look up the definitions and differences between minimum wage and living wage.

However I do agree teachers strike far too much

Reply 26

username1456920

Original post by Jordooooom

Oh my how clueless you are. I think you should look up the definitions and differences between minimum wage and living wage.

However I do agree teachers strike far too much

Are you honestly telling me a single adult could not afford the necessities to live on minimum wage?

Reply 27

Le Nombre

Original post by TSA

A combination of the money and holidays is what I should have said.

Even so, the money's still absolutely dire compared to other professions, if I reach an equivalent level of seniority as my parents (they're teachers, I'm a lawyer) I'll be looking at in excess of a million a year, they just about made it over a ton.

Reply 28

username1456920

Original post by Le Nombre

The term "A lot of money" is a very subjective concept and is relative. So I'm not going to argue about it with you.

Reply 29

ChelseaYvonne

Most teachers will have had to do a bachelors degree and a PGCE which is a minimum of four years. A lot of them could have gotten other, better paid jobs with the qualifications they had. I don't think any teacher goes into it for the money but I do agree with the strikes.
They are not striking because they went into a job with crappy pay and then decided that they should be payed more. They're striking because they went into a job understanding how much they would be payed but then their wages didn't rise with the rate of inflation so in monetary terms, they are actually earning less than when they first started and also have a lot less resources with which to work with.
Banning a teacher's right to strike would just lead to the government taking even more funding away from the education sector and discouraging new graduates from teaching which will affect our children's futures a lot more than missing a day here and there due to strikes.

Reply 30

Jordooooom

Original post by TSA

Are you honestly telling me a single adult could not afford the necessities to live on minimum wage?

Who said that we're necessarily talking about single adults?

And there is a reason food banks exist you know, they aren't solely used by homeless bums

Reply 31

chemting

Original post by simplylldxo

- I think with teaching, you need to be passionate about wanting to improve children's future not just interested in the money.

By this logic, so should Doctors...

Reply 32

Le Nombre

Original post by TSA

The term "A lot of money" is a very subjective concept and is relative. So I'm not going to argue about it with you.

Yes, but teaching does not appeal to grads based on the salary, look at the PGCE application thread vs. the IB, training contract, actuary ones etc.

People who do teaching for 'selfish' reasons are looking to the work-life balance, hols, pension, job security etc., not the sheer cash involved, which is lacking compared to the other professions they could apply for upon graduation.

It is not subjective to say a recent graduate taking a PGCE offer over something in finance, consultancy, law, research science, generic blue chip grad schemes etc. is not being swayed by the money, as the other options will nearly always pay more, the salaries are on their websites.

Reply 33

simplylldxo

Original post by chemting

By this logic, so should Doctors...

I've rarely came across a doctor that isn't passionate apart from the locums at weekends and bank holidays who don't read your file before doing their rounds but that's another story... I suppose the logic applies to every job that you want to be successful in :smile:

if you love the job, the salary shouldn't matter!

Reply 34

username1456920

Original post by Jordooooom

Who said that we're necessarily talking about single adults?

And there is a reason food banks exist you know, they aren't solely used by homeless bums

If you marry and have children then you should be responsible and make sure you can afford to provide for them. If you can't then you are just an irresponsible adult and it is your fault.

Yes some people like to live beyond their means, realise they don't have enough money to buy food and have to resort to food banks.

Reply 35

username1456920

Original post by Le Nombre

Yes more money but not with the same holidays. Like I said combination of money and holidays.

Reply 36

SMEGGGY

They have no right to strike. They should go to countries where they don't get paid anything like they do here and the teachers work their arses off to provide an education, yet here they do nothing in comparison!

Reply 37

McRite

I've seen how striking affects a nations' education. In my country, in 2011 public school teachers went on strike for 2-3 months or so, which really disadvantaged the students because there's not much resources to help them if there's no lessons and the school closes. They then became frustrated and started striking and vandalising school property, by the time the government managed to get the teachers back to work students were about to start writing their finals, missing more than a third of the syllabus and most of them failed and had to repeat while others dropped out of school. This had a knock on affect with rescheduling of holidays and revealed huge cracks in our public education system. Grades have been steadily decreasing since that year.

This clearly shows the destructive effect of teachers striking on the country's future. I live in a LEDC, which may have escalated the situation, however teachers have their students future in their hands and just can't throw that away for their own benefits, they should use better means to portray their message.

Reply 38

Oceansandpearls

Original post by SMEGGGY

They really do have a right to strike, that is why there are unions. :rolleyes:

In the recent years living costs have been going up and the teachers pay hasn't been an equal amount, many teachers have family's who they need to provide for, so this is a big concern. the retiring age is also dramatically increasing. About 5 years ago it used to be 60 but now it's closer to 70. In addition to this, many people worry that if teachers do not get good pay, the future generation will not want to go into teaching. This is increasingly likely at the moment because the government is threatening to increase teaching hours and shorten holidays. If noone wants to go into teaching there will be no one to educate.

Reply 39

Le Nombre

Original post by TSA

Yes more money but not with the same holidays. Like I said combination of money and holidays.

But that would suggest it's a similar pro rata rate to other jobs, it still isn't the same hourly rate as lawyers, accountants, bankers and so on earn, though obviously it's nice being paid for holiday.