Qld Teachers Striking - 19/5/09

Dont feel sorry for W.A. teachers, in fact some are embarrassed by the unions actions here.
In the last couple of years it has been very militant and basicly held the future of year 12 students to ransom on a regular basis. The last pay was achieved with pressure and activities other proffessions (police, nurses) wouldnt stoop to - just before an election.
Yes they have got a massive increase, but its at the expensive of every other government worker, with flow on effects in the private sector.



http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24057352-13881,00.htmlbroke://

This shows how ridiculous the situation is - why should WA teachers be paid so much more OR everyone else so much less....?





From the Education Departments own site-

www.det.wa.edu.au/teachingwa/detcms/navigation/working-in-a-public-school/salaries-and-teaching-levels/?page=3#toc3


Im quiet happy to pay big $ for quality BUT $$$$ doesnt mean you will get quality considering what WA uni's are up to.

elizabethb come on over.... we've got the best wind and 100 of your fellow Qlders for company.

Exactly.

But what is much worse is that to you dont currently even need to pass year 12 or do TEE subjects, to get into the uni teaching degree courses.
So many prospective student teachers (as in school leavers not mature age) did not pass year 12 english (OR shouldnt have) and have such shocking literacy skills that the 2 biggest uni's have developed special literacy units for their 1st yr teaching students.

The % of uni students that couldnt pass basic english was gobsmacking.

If the pay is so good, how come they have to drop the standard so low to get teachers ?
Not having a go at you Crazy, just a thought, I'm thinking is it now such a poop job no one wants to do it ?

I've got to agree with FB, if they are increasing the wages and lowering the standards, there must be some disadvantages. If the allowances for living in remote areas aren't needed, why do they have to offer them to entice people out there?

The great thing about these increased wages is that if it is much more attractive to teach, you will see much more capable teachers come through the system in the next 4 or 5 years. Sounds good to me!

Elizabeth, what's OP stand for?

I was surprised with people from my own year that seemed to go into teaching almost as a default. None of them seemed to be the sort of person that would make a good teacher, but then again, they may have turned out to be excellent teachers. I don't know if academic results necessarily equate to being great teachers.

My first job was working at a Uni and part of that job was supervising a computer lab in the education department. The people that I dealt with there that stick in my memory are not the ones I think would make great teachers... Hopefully they got better!

Sure looks sus, thats why I used the Dept of Education and the original 'Australian newspaper' article to prove the graph is accurate. I only looked for teacher stats but some comparatives would be interesting. However unless you are in mining, construction or finance, the WA (mining) Boom meant an explosion of costs... cost of living, housing, finance etc etc, and 'normal/average' wages just never caught up.



Lots of factors contributed to this mess in the WA Education System and most of them have nothing to do with naughty kids.

Education Dept
About 2001 some bright sparks who were so highly educated they were no earthly use, dreamed up new educational concepts- curiculum framework for intergrated teaching blah blah... then they revolutionised with the marking system into a really complex 'Level' system.... Naturally teachers were NOT HAPPY, weird reports or none, made lots of unhappy parents and eventually levels got canned.
But the Curriculum Council kept at it - they changed yr11 & 12 TEE system.... then revised all subjects including names (-now have maths 2a 2b or 3a3b, maths specialized, English 2a etc etc)...these 2009 subject curriculum are very perscriptive AND came out late. The teachers are still angry.

The median age of teachers is late 40s to mid 50s. No one likes change but these changes were mindblowingly difficult to develope, use or sell, so many good teachers retired early, and with every new change more would leave for greenier pastures.
Dont know why, but every year the paper has headlines on teacher shortages, but the letters to editor are from teachers who have applied but not been given a positions. Looks like the Ed Dept contributes to its own problems.

Mining Money
Stories of kitchen hands getting $90,000 saw potential uni students disappear, same with those that jumped into the housing boom construction industry. Also meant big increase of new families and school students coming to WA.

University admissions drop
Engineering and mining companies were heavily promoting degrees (engineering etc) that they needed, depriving Education dept of school graduates with science & maths. The uni's are also facing financial problems with low student numbers, so are pushing to take students who would normally only ever come in the backdoor (ie via TAFE or Art Degree.)

Politics and union Terror Tactics
The previous article in the 'Australian' shows how the teachers union used and abused the uncoming state election to further payclaims. Every year a couple of months before the final yr 12 exams the union would start making waves, basicly holding 17yrs futures to ransom. Frankly they went too far this time - even when they got this massive award they debated whether it was good enough.


From my interpretion of events Id say the reason why there was a shortage of teachers in the first instance was the Education Departments continual interference in the class room, number of retirees, compounded by the influx of new students and the dubious organizational skills of the dept.
The uni entrance levels are indictive of the uni's need to put butts on seats as well as a lack of suitable students. And really what 17yr old is going to bust his boiler if knows he doesnt have to...

We do have a problem staffing Kimberley and remote schools. Have friends that teach up there, they love it, but really deserve the extra for the isolation.

Ok now is the time I say 7:30am-5:45 because of "year level meeting" and moderation, AND marking draft assignment.

Since I've come home, I've marked their Science drafts for this term and recorded their marks and 'effort' for the term thus far, planned homework grid for this week, and I now find myself preparing for two assessment tasks tomorrow and their buddies sporting rotations. 10:20pm. Grrr bed time instead.

PASS

ahhh yes, two weeks holidays in FOUR and a HALF weeks... Don't start! hah

9+ hour days... I think these holidays will be time for my first trip interstate... =]

That was the plan but the trashy Wedding Crashers is on TV....

Ahh due at school at 7:30 tomorrow for the "Walking Wheeling Wednesday" and then LOTE first up for the kids. I'm planned for the week anyway.

I think that in a recession it is good for governments to spend more money on the public sector. They should be hiring more public servants, more police, more nurses, and maybe more teachers.

I can't see how getting wage rises would damage the economy as they are funded from a government that should be trying to spend even more money.

I think the danger would be that if they don't consistently ask for wage rises when the economy gets better they are behind again.

In theory giving public servants more money, and especially those in secure jobs, should help the economy by stimulating spending...

Red thumbs? What are they? Surely they are no match for my year12 economics!