Completely agree, sick and tired of my job now. Teaching is becoming a real ball ache! When did it stop being about the kids?
Education is not about the kids anymore - hasn't been for a while.
GingerBusiness's 10 reasons NOT to become a teacher1. Secondary school teachers work on average 60h a week according to government reports (We get paid for 32.5h of that on salary) NOT including extra curricular etc.
2. Even with point 1, you are called lazy by the government and parents.
3. You are ridiculed for having long holidays (Which most teachers mostly work in - because we have to - and have to pay higher holiday costs because we are off in peak times).
4. Your pay is at threat (Performance related pay in an organisation which is legally NOT allowed to make a profit - How is that going to work as a tool to improve pay for the best teachers?! Just puts heads under more pressure to cut costs giving them this power) and your pension is under threat.
5. The fact the media portrays teachers are a bunch of unionised slackers who all go on strike everytime we can (Infact, I know for a fact the large majority of teachers only go on strike at times which has minimal impact on students - If we worked to rule, the educational system in the UK would almost stop).
6. All the power you had as a teacher, or would have in other educational systems, has been taken away (Thus behavioural standards have fallen - No serious sanctions)
7. You work under one of the most stringent appraisal systems, in any organisation, in the UK (You can now sack a teacher in less than 3 weeks on competency grounds)
8. By the time I retire, my pension maturity age will probably be 70 (That's another 40 years of the rubbish stated above)
9. You are constantly told the changed in education under the Tories are improving educational standards in the UK... When you know by experience and testing that they are not.
10. If that wasn't enough, there is always one person who tells you;
'Those who can, do. Those who can't, Teach',
'It must be nice getting 15 weeks holiday a year',
'Teaching is an easy job for life',
'You're a teacher because you want to be a peado'
...and my most hated line 'You chose to the profession - I do not know why you are moaning'... I am moaning because I want to give the kids something better than what I had at school. I am moaning because
YOUR children are being massively disadvantaged by the state of education in this country. Not because of anything I might receive from it - because of
YOUR offspring and the fact that the government is gambling with their futures because, quite simply, they have a man in charge that, barring having a sex change, is Margret Thatcher in his approach to the public sector workers.
Back to the topic in hand - Where is this application form?!?!?!