Teachers' Strike!

[orchard]

And in that time they've seen a big drop in real term wages, among other worsening conditions.

Bear in mind that that applies to 95pc of the population mate.

 

[Groucho]

My mum's in her last year of what will be a 40 year teaching career, all in North Liverpool, and mostly in one school.

Whether she is on strike tomorrow I don't know, but I can tell you this; she and all of her colleagues dislike Gove with a passion. Personally, I don't like strikes and never have, but sometimes, I think you do need to make your point and be heard.

 

[Tubey]

Once again - bolded for convenience:

Micro-management within the education system, imposed at local, regional and national level, has led to barriers to good teaching and learning of mathematics...

The mathematics subject knowledge of primary school teachers and new trainees urgently needs to be improved. In 2006, only 2% of those graduates studying PGCE (to become primary school teachers) had a STEM degree; few had studied mathematics beyond GCSE. Many do not feel confident in the subject. This is not a criticism of them as teachers, but of a system which has allowed this situation to occur in a subject which is so critically important to the nation...

We believe that the new National Curriculum should not predetermine teaching methods in mathematics or the chronology of learning. There has been a culture of policies which are non-statutory being almost universally viewed as obligatory by teachers and schools, due to the government agencies’ reliance on them for their tick-box style of assessment. This has not helped the mathematical education of children...

We find it hard to understand how a situation in which large numbers of students are systematically under-prepared for their degree courses has been allowed to arise. Mathematics is not just required by STEM subjects, but by very many other university departments as well; economics, social sciences, nursing, computer science and many more. The mathematics element of many degree courses is often a common cause of failure, drop-out or general disaffection for students. This failure of the system, therefore, inflicts an enormous personal cost to the individuals as well as a direct financial cost to the taxpayer who will have invested a considerable amount of money in every student’s education to that point.

etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

You can desperately try to avoid the findings of that report in your desperate crusade to somehow try and state it as my opinion, and good luck with that, but you're wrong, completely wrong. And it's not even me you're disagreeing with - it's the government, the vast majority of academics, hundreds of reports, journals, articles...

Your opinion is that teachers are bad, yet just sit back and think about it for a second - what system did these teachers go through to become teachers? It wouldn't be the exact same one now would it?? Even if they were bad - and let's face it, there are terrible teachers around - then it'd be the system which is responsible for that.

The root cause is the system. It's the ONLY root cause. It's the only thing it can be.

It can't be put any clearer than this:

This is not a criticism of them as teachers, but of a system which has allowed this situation to occur in a subject which is so critically important to the nation...

http://www.conservatives.com/News/N...ownloadable Files/Vorderman maths report.ashx

 

[Brennan]

Bear in mind that that applies to 95pc of the population mate.

95 percent of the population aren't tasked with looking after the future generation of this country, and i'd bet most don't work 50 hour+ weeks either.

 

[Clint Planet]

This is the best lesson to give to kids. Don't get what you want, throw a strop.

I'm still laughing at this. Gold dust.

 

[Allezfan]

i'd bet most don't work 50 hour+ weeks either.

Nah, most are unemployed.

 

[orchard]

95 percent of the population aren't tasked with looking after the future generation of this country, and i'd bet most don't work 50 hour+ weeks either.

Maybe not in the non-senior civil service, but I assure you that of the people I know outside of that sector they are, 100pc.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Sorry to go off on a bit of a tangent, but this was launched this week. Thought Clint might find it interesting

http://government.github.com/

It includes all of these - http://gsa.github.io/federal-open-source-repos - that were created freely for government use.

Just saying like.

 

[Brennan]

Maybe not in the non-senior civil service, but I assure you that of the people I know outside of that sector they are, 100pc.

• Private sector workers have a longer average week, at 33.4 hours, compared with the public sector’s average of 30.7 hours.

http://www.significancemagazine.org...s-private-sector--which-really-pays-more.html

 

[orchard]

http://www.significancemagazine.org...s-private-sector--which-really-pays-more.html

Is that factoring in the unemployed then Brennar's?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

95 percent of the population aren't tasked with looking after the future generation of this country, and i'd bet most don't work 50 hour+ weeks either.

Lets be honest here, measuring productivity by the number of hours worked is kinda old fashioned isn't it? You wouldn't judge Usain Bolt negatively because he spends less time doing his job than everyone else, would you?

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

Your opinion is that teachers are bad, yet just sit back and think about it for a second - what system did these teachers go through to become teachers? It wouldn't be the exact same one now would it?? Even if they were bad - and let's face it, there are terrible teachers around - then it'd be the system which is responsible for that.

Firstly, I never said once that I thought teachers are 'bad', I merely pointed out that their individual performance cannot be merely excused by a coverall of the 'system'.

You keep posting a Tory study on the entire spectrum of Maths, but have ignored the information I posted, which clearly stated that poorly performing teachers improving their performance, would dramatically improve the overall results. You've even said yourself there "there are terrible teachers around" - but then immediately excuse their individual failure, by pointing the finger back at the 'system' that they came through. Which totally ignores the fact that their peers who are consistently out performing them, went through the same system......

The system needs to be improved, but so do the standards & performance of many of those delivering the 'product' in the classroom. Deny that's a fact all you like mate, & post another 1000 selective snippets if you think it somehow negates it, but you'll still be wrong.....

 

[Housequake]

I just rang the police about my house being robbed but they told me they'd formed a picket line as the tea kitty was getting out of hand.

ffs.

 

[Steve0]

95 percent of the population aren't tasked with looking after the future generation of this country, and i'd bet most don't work 50 hour+ weeks either.

Sorry but teachers don't work more than 50 hours a week. Teachers also get 13 weeks holiday every year.

Still think they have a right to strike but misinformation like that is just daft.

 

[Tubey]

Firstly, I never said once that I thought teachers are 'bad', I merely pointed out that their individual performance cannot be merely excused by the 'system'.

You keep posting a Tory study on the entire spectrum of Maths, but have ignored the information I posted, which clearly stated that poorly performing teachers improving their performance, would dramatically improve the overall results. You've even said yourself there "there are terrible teachers around" - but then immediately excuse their individual failure, by pointing the finger back at the 'system' that they came through. Which totally ignores the fact that their peers who are consistently out performing them, went through the same system......

The system needs to be improved, but so do the standards & performance of many of those delivering the 'product' in the classroom. Deny that's a fact all you like mate, & post another 1000 selective snippets if you think it somehow negates it, but you'll still be wrong.....

And what would improve that performance?

Wouldn't be an improved system would it?

Or are you suggesting that teachers are bad on purpose? They woke up one day and decided to perform poorly I guess.

Once again:

The mathematics subject knowledge of primary school teachers and new trainees urgently needs to be improved. In 2006, only 2% of those graduates studying PGCE (to become primary school teachers) had a STEM degree; few had studied mathematics beyond GCSE. Many do not feel confident in the subject. This is not a criticism of them as teachers, but of a system which has allowed this situation to occur in a subject which is so critically important to the nation...

How much clearer can that be? Dismissing it as a selective snippet is ludicrous - read the bloody thing in full if you want.

http://www.conservatives.com/News/N...ownloadable Files/Vorderman maths report.ashx

... and it's fairly relevant given it's shaping the feckin' policy for the UK towards numeracy moving forward!!!