Queensland Teachers Are Going to Get Shafted

[Smithers]

Hi Team

Just thought I'd let you know how well off you are in WA...

Our EBA begins May 8th.

Queensland teachers are the worst paid in mainland Australia.

The Labor party here have just won another term, resoundingly.

We are in recession.

Also add to that a long and successful history of teacher bashing, a Union that does things the old slow way, a deeply passive workforce that doesn't mind being told what to do and a nasty, officious bureaucracy that does what it likes.

Add that all up and what does it mean?

I'll keep you posted but many of my colleagues here are expecting a total and utter shafting.

Smithers

[Christine Kelly]

Sorry Smithers - a lot of that description fits W.A!!!! - at least you have more sunny alfresco spots to drown your sorrows!

[Smithers]

Not quite Christine

They've jsut suggested here in today's paper (The Courier Mail) that primary teacher graduates should all sit a literacy and numeracy test at the end of their degree.

If they don't pass, they don't get a job...good old fashioned teacher bashing.

Smithers

[parent]

In Yvonne's absence may I say I can't see how that is Teacher Bashing?

Would you want your kid to see a doctor who had failed a basic competence test?

Within reason this isn't as crazy as you fear. Sometimes notes home from teachers can make you squirm, and kids are quick to report on basic spelling mistakes etc made on the board.

Nobody suggests any teacher has to know EVERYTHING, but tests in basic literacy and numeracy may be a form of quality control, seeing as the INTAKE at CERTAIN universities is dropping faster than the stock exchange.

[PPOV]

When I went through Teachers College (as it was then) we had to pass a spelling and maths test in our first year. I recently did some education unit tutoring for Curtin and the students had to pass a spelling and maths test. The maths test was pretty rigorous and if they didn't pass they had to keep doing it until they did. Nobody graduated unless they passed both tests. Nothing new.

[Smithers]

Dear Parent

Please, just step back and think before you post. For starters, read the article.

The situation that has arrived here where, apparently, primary graduates are required to sit a test before they get a job is predicated on the assumption that they're inadequate after four years of university training. This situation has come about because the entry requirements for teaching have dropped year after year.

Entry requirements have dropped BECAUSE THE PAY AND CONDITIONS ARE CRAP!

It's not about whether or not you should be tested, it's about the gradual decline in our profession, overseen for decades by complicit teacher unions and a corrupt political process.

Please PPOV, your history here is irrelevant...Queensland teachers are suffering and this news is a sign of just how bad the system has become.

Smithers

[PPOV]

Sorry, Smithers, I didn't mean to trivialize the issue. The main point of contention is that Qld is trying to test the teachers after they have done their four years of training and racked up massive HECS debts. In the past, the filtering process of testing for literacy and numeracy was done before, or early, in the degree course.

[Smithers]

The latest offer!

The government have offered 4.5, 4 and 4 over three years.

What's the bet we strike for a day, it ends up in arbitration and we eventually settle for the offer after a lengthy delay...too many do gooders, martyrs and apathetic second income earners.

Smithers

[peter george]

Every teachers' group gets shafted. It is just a question of degree. In W.A. we were incredibly lucky to escape with the salary section despite the disastrous Gisborne led campaign.

Smithers , I hope the leaders of your union don't follow the West's lead. Here it was the standard rah , rah , rah on the esplanade followed by directive 1 which can be summed up as a "Clayton's campaign" where the steamed up campaign lasted for 5 milliseconds.I wish all you banana benders the best of luck. The timing of the labor party avalanche wasn't the best. Keep the fight.