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A Victorian teachers’ strike is likely to close 160 schools tomorrow. Teacher and activist Iurgi Urrutia explains why he’s joining what’s predicted to be the biggest statewide strike in Victorian history.
I’M A TEACHER and I will strike this coming Wednesday.
Most people seem to think it’s because we want higher pay. I feel that the Union and the media have done a very poor job of explaining the issues but, personally, I couldn’t care less about the pay rise. Don’t get me wrong, I will not complain if I get a pay rise, but there are other more important issues that concern me. The problem for me is about performance based pay, as it makes no sense and would destroy school collegiality.
I work in a Learning Centre with five teachers. We all plan, share resources and teach together in the same room to 120 students. How could one of us get an increase and others not? How could it be measured, when we all do the same job? And if we are competing against each other, why would we plan and share resources?
To add insult to injury, they also propose that 80 per cent of teachers get a salary increase and 20 per cent don’t. In their view, currently 99 per cent of teachers get a salary increase and that is wrong, because not everyone could be doing a good job. Should we apply the same argument to politicians? Should we implement performance pay for them? And should we only move 80 per cent of students up to the next year level while 20 per cent repeat?
These ideas show how little they understand teaching. Their ignorance and harm doesn’t stop there, though.
According to the premier Ted Baillieu and his people, teachers don’t do, they don’t teach enough and the “teaching” load should be increased. That means less time for planning lessons, finding resources, marking student assignments, calling parents (and frequently being abused by them), following up on the wellbeing of students and so on.
I can only speak for myself, and for the teachers that I have met and see where I work, but we only get paid to be at school 8:30am to 3:30pm. However, most of us are at school before eight. We seldom leave before five and, when we get home, we continue working. Sometimes, I feel really bad because I neglect my wife and my little toddler on weekdays. Apparently, though, we’re not doing enough for our premier.
Recently, a vision paper from the government has come to our attention that discusses even more outrageous ideas, such as:
- sacking 5% of teachers;
- different salaries depending on the subjects taught;
- principals coming from different professions (for example, a business person becoming a principal); and
- imposing professional development on teachers during the holidays.
I will not respond to all those “ideas” but let me just cover the last two because, once again, they demonstrate a profound ignorance or contempt for the teaching profession.
The job school principals do is essential for the running of the school — but they’re not business managers. Principals need a deep understanding of teaching in order to be successful in their job. Putting someone who has no idea about teaching as a principal makes as much sense as getting an accountant or a plumber to be the writer and director of a movie.
In regards to imposing professional development on teachers during the school holidays — as incredible as this may seem to politicians, we already, very often, do this. Earlier in the year, for instance, I spent one week of my holidays on a professional development course. I wasn’t the only one — there were another one hundred teachers there, most of whom, like myself, had travelled inter-state for the course. And of course, add to that the days of preparation that we had to do before the start of the term.
I’m not complaining — I love teaching; I’m passionate about teaching. No stupid policy – no matter how senseless or misinformed – will take that passion away. However, I will not stand for total disrespect of our profession. I will not let governments, politicians and the media erode and destroy what I love.
After all, I have never met a person who thought, “I want an easy profession with a really good salary. I know, I’ll be a teacher!”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
5 Comments
A big thanks to @IndependentAus for publishing my article about the teacher strike tomorrow – http://t.co/CYxM7ral #sept #AEU
I wish you & all of the teachers & support staff luck in obtaining the conditions you are fighting for. It is a disgrace that the govt is pulling so much money out of education in Victoria, an absolute disgrace. It deeply concerns me that education is being pushed towards being privatized. Starts with pitting RTOs against TAFEs, now principals look like becoming business managers … What next??? Disgusting.
Is applying the market mechanism the only trick the LNP has? Terrible, terrible ideas, especially the principle from another profession. Teaching is a hard job. Good luck. Makes me wonder what Campbell Newman might have in store for Queensland.
Lurgi, thnnks for telling us the reality of being a teacher under Bailleau and the liberals.
They are very fond of blaming people in socoety. Unfortunately its your turn now. Testerday it was the unemployed, then it was the unions. Its never their side of politics.
Their committment to Education is shown by their complete lack of support for it. $48 million out of VCAL last year and $300 million out of TAFE this year. No worries though. They have a new $500 million prison on the drawing boards so that will solve all their problems.
Peter Reith had the affrontery to say last evening that the labor Party had authoritarian ideals. The labor party are Pussy cats compared to these people.
If you think Julia Gillard is a Liar. You are deluded. Ted Bailleau, Campbell Newman and their mates in Canberra are the deluded ones.
All that the teachers are doing is their right to protest a government that wants to make them look like they are unreasonable.
The ones who are unreasonable are the conservatives. Their mates do alright though. “Keep the bastards honest”. Go teachers.
Dear teachers,
I understand that you are fighting for something better for you, but the truth is that the quality of teaching is low in Victoria. If they say that the best schools are here, I feel sorry for the rest of the country. Your salaries are very big compared to the amount of work that you do. I am a parent, and I am very unpleased with the low standards that Victorian schools provide. I am not sure why that happens. Is it because of the lack of structure in the curriculum and the fact that teachers here have to find their own resources for lessons? Yes, I think that’s what it is. I don’t think you are not good teachers, I believe that your work is hard having to plan something on your own, I think the whole Dept. of Ed. Has a problem. There is no structure, especially in primary schools. That’s what makes your job even more difficult. At the same time, I still believe that your salaries are high enough. If you love teaching and you are passionate about it, don’t you think you deserve more than other colleagues who maybe don’t put as much effort into it as you?
Let’s Think a little bit from a parent’s perspective. What do parents see? That children go to school, have very little Homework when they come home,very often they have a substitute teacher, because their own teacher is “planning”, or volunteers for the Sports Gala day, or goes to professional development, etc., that there are no textbooks and workbooks to work from, therefore no indication of what is done in class, when they approach the teacher, in a nice manner- I’m not referring to those cases when parents are rude- they are not able to get any information about what their children have been studying in school. Teachers don’t like to be controlled by anyone. All teachers dislike NAPLAN tests and professional development. Why is that? There is professional development in all areas, why would teaching be an exception?
Why don’t you want to take pride in what you teach your students? They don’t get much from school. It’s such a shame.
I am really hoping that the government is going to be very tough regarding education in this country. I am hoping that they will introduce more structure, with a well defined curriculum, that all schools have to follow, that they will give teachers all the necessary tools to ease their job, but at the same time making sure that the whole curriculum is covered during a school year. I hope schools will be rated according to NAPLAN tests which should be administered every year beginning with Grade 3, without skipping any year, I hope the most hard working teachers will be rewarded according to their merits and school will not be only a place to socialize for both students and teachers, but a place where children will learn and be prepared for the future.
This article/argument on why you should strike infuriates those of us that are not teachers.
I’ll touch on a couple of points of those raised.
I have never met a person who thought “I want an easy profession with a really good salary, I know, I’ll be a teacher”. What about all those careers that are not “an easy profession and good wage” such as tradies, HR Professionals, hospitality etc. No one enters a career wanting an easy profession and a good wage. I wouldn’t want to teach, but guarantee you wouldn’t want to do my job either, regardless of the work I do or pay I receive.
Your comment on working hours and believing you are being paid for between 8:30am and 3:30pm but generally work on average (based on your comment) 9 hours a day (plus time at home and possibly minus lunch?). Well I hate to break it to you, but so does another large portion of the work force. Every person I know works on average 60-80 hours per week, and feels guilty for neglecting the important people in their life. Many of us are essentially are on call 24 hours a day thanks to smart phones allowing emails to reach us at any time day or night. Most of those same people I know earn money within the band teachers can earn depending on their seniority.
Performance based pay – Guess what, I’m performance based, and so are nearly everyone else outside of government. Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) need to be defined correctly if teachers are going to fall under this scheme. I negotiated a pay with my recent employer, there are 4 other people doing the same role as me, but I don’t know what they earn, or what there bonus (based on performance) is. It doesn’t stop me from sharing information, because my overriding determination and passion to be a professional and good at my job outweighs my greed. I work with people in my industry, and hence like you work with an unknown quantity (kids can react in a myriad of ways, as can adults), but we have KPI’s based on areas that I feel comfortable with. This is something that will have to be negotiated between the teachers union and the government. If there are no KPI’s where is the accountability.
Finally why should 20% of underperforming teachers not get a pay rise. It doesn’t matter what profession you are in, if you are doing a better job than someone else who is as you.lazy or cuts corners, why should they get paid the same amount.
Teachers need to accept and be welcomed into the privatized world.