Heres my contribution to the debate: Performance-related pay is a terrible idea in teaching. There are very few teachers who are not constantly striving to maximise their students’ achievements and their daily decisions revolve around how to use time and resources to be fair to all. To imply teachers could do better if they compete with one another instead of collaborate is exactly the attitude we would expect from this nasty and divisive administration which dispenses entirely with trust for our profession. Politics is a cut-throat occupation where to succeed it is often necessary to be selfish and self-aggrandising. For teachers, that is simply not true. We’re team players, pretty much by definition, and certainly no one becomes a comprehensive schoolteacher for the money or the prestige. No one is suggesting that teachers have an 11% payrise to compensate us for whatever it is that MPs feel justified in crying about. Teachers’ working days are full of desperate pressure as we try to engage all students, all the time, and ensure they progress every 20 minutes and can articulate what they’re learning. Then we spend our non-lesson time trying to create a fortified paper trail that ensures any line manager or inspector can clearly see we are doing our jobs properly. Data entry, tracking, planning and written feedback to students which demonstrates an open line of communication…every time we begin to meet the new standards required then another angle is introduced. Until politicians hold themselves to the same standards they expect from us: austerity, dedication, overtly provable daily accountability…I will not be happy to accept their hypocrisy. I’d tell you that teachers are resentful and angry, and that is partly true. But let me also tell you this. Most are just bewildered. Why is it that we try so hard, but still get punished? How can we work with such commitment and such specialist knowledge but still have no surplus, no status and no sign that our work is valued? The government assumes we are lazy, grasping, and untrustworthy. That is the distortion of their reflection in the window between us. Teachers see the good in everyone and have taken a long time to see back through that window to realise “they” are working with a different worldview and unless we stand up for our beliefs they will continue to erode our working conditions until we look back at the 40% of first 5 years attrition rate and wonder how on earth 60% stayed for so long. Teachers - please strike on Wednesday. Parents – please give us your support, as loudly as you can. We need to be heard, before it is too late.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 08:30:39 +0000