I just can't put in to words just how much I hate the public sector!
The average teacher is paid about 33k a year, obviously that means some are paid less, some are paid more. Take into account the amount of holidays they get, a nice public sector pension and that works out as a nice little job. You don't have to be that clever, don't have to put too much effort in (all teaching material is provided for you), the only thing you do have to do (which is no different to any other apprenticeship) is to take a lower salary for a while whilst you first learn the job. The great thing about being a teacher as well is that because you're dealing with kids all day you tend to wander away from what is real life. More than 90% of the teachers I've spoken to as part of bringing up my daughter and as being Friends with them when they were at school appear to live in a dream world that has seen them go from school, to university and then back to school (normally in the guise of one of their old teachers).
Because of this la la land approach they're now going to go on strike because of below inflation pay rises. If they could just open their eyes a little bit they'd see that below inflation pay rises for the public sector has been the norm for a few years. This is because the down turn in the economy that we are now seeing was expected. The private sector, the thing that actually generates the income that all these public sector workers (including you teachers) are being paid out off is struggling. When things were good teachers got great pay rises (in real terms 10% above inflation). Things are now bad. Any pay rise above 2% is seen as good in companies where all costs are spiralling, company owners can't afford bigger pay rises because they can't just dip into the public purse. If the Government are forced to dish out more money to 33k a year teachers then somebody else has to pay for it, us suckers in the private sector with our non secure jobs, private pensions that we have to pay for and less than 2% pay rises. Great, we all get landed with giving more of our money to the government so that they can pay themselves more money.
Sort of begs the question why don't we all just say fuck it and sign up for a cushy number with the government? After the bastard of a week I've had it's crossed my mind more than once.
2 comments:
Perhaps we should just do away with mandatory public-supported education. As you say, the schools don't create any wealth for the economy. So there can't be much value in them. If there's something to be learned, parents can simply purchase those self-explanatory teaching materials and let the children have at them. That should do nicely. Why continue to send our kids to school, and support those parasites?
Perhaps NUT teachers should just be happy in the fact that they are paid "a fair wage" for what they do? If they don't think it's fair then in this great western free world they are free to move on, if teachers become in short supply then better terms will all be part of the governments recruitment drive.
As far as I'm concerned it' fair because:-
1. An independent panel set the pay rise
2. Other teachers unions accepted it
At the end of the day if you don't like your job, if it doesn't provide you with the quality of life you think you deserve then it is your responsibility to find a better job? Then again I suppose that’s why people join unions, to absolve themselves from personal responsibility.
If you want to get into an argument over the level of education children now receive I'm more than happy to talk about that as well? What percentage of 11 year olds can't read properly, the percentage of 13 year olds that can't do mental arithmetic? How about the numbers of 21 year olds who leave university with good degrees yet are unemployable due to a lack of actual knowledge?
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