Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Teachers With No Class


Question 1 -In the same week one of the biggest teachers' unions in England and Wales demanded 10% or at least £3,000, whichever is greater; teachers voted to boycott national tests for seven and 11 year olds- Discuss....

The average teacher's salary is £33,000 £10,000 above the national average . In the last ten years spending on education has gone up 68 percent ,adjusted . We have acquired 40,000 extra teachers and 100,000 classroom assistants . Teachers pay has gone up about 20% with 220 heads on over £100,000 (last year). They work part time ,have secure jobs for life , golden pensions as well as key worker give away houses, and more cash for those in London etc. No suprise then that applications for teacher training courses are up, with the Training and Development Agency for Schools reporting a 40% increase in inquiries.
Meanwhile according to Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, there are 17,000 sub-standard teachers in England ( yeah and the rest ) who we cannot get rid of .
Anyone who can spell their own name gets eight A `s but a review of the governments literacy programme revealed that standards had hardly improved since the 50s . England has dropped from 3rd to 15th place during this spurge . In 2007 , results ( I mean attainment levels …), for seven year olds showed that mastery of reading writing and maths ,had fallen back to 2000 levels . 14-20% of boys leave the system with a reading age of no higher than seven, and 63% of boys cannot read and write to a minimum standard, (43% of girls)
Question 2- Aside then from swelling the burden on the country of a vast dependent cuckoo population of teachers show what we have got for our money showing your working
Tricky.
Question 3 - From your peronal experience are SATS useful. Illustrate with examples
When we went to look at Primary schools for our eldest I was concerned by the results ( I mean attainment levels …) in the published offsted report . Some of the remarks also worried us . The headmaster told us that they had not taught to the test properly that year, and as offsted tend to work backwards from the 'attainment levels' ,we could discount the rest of the report .He was able to pass around the new one ,yet to be posted on line ,which showed improvements . Quite a few parents looked relieved .

No doubt it was not a bad school then ,and it is not a perfect school now, but falling roles mean falling funding, and hurt careers . This makes makes teachers salesmen. Would we spend thousands on anything else on the say so of the Salesman ?
Question 4 - Which of the following most persuades you that by their demand for less accountability and more money teachers have made confrontation with their Unions not only inevitable but desirable.

a General falling salaries b General deceased pensions c General long hours / holidays not taken d unemployment for many e above average pay increases for Teachers for ten years ( way above private sector ) f falling standards g The dependence of parents on test results
Question 5- Do you hope they do go on strike because it will be fun watching them try and time it to occur during a brief period of work ?
Yes , their wish to mark their own work and reward it with a 10% rise is an outrage and an insult both to tax payers and parents .

6 comments:

Bill Quango MP said...

Now that's satire!

Newmania said...

Ho ho .. a bit clunky I know

CityUnslicker said...

Salesmen can eb quite sucessfull. they are a necessary adjunct of capitalist life...;o)

Newmania said...

they are a necessary adjunct of capitalist life...;

...yes that snake oil never did cure my baldness CU...

Philipa said...

Could be me - I didn't like dissecting the frog. Only science lesson I didn't like. Setting fire to magnesium was good though.

Newmania said...

( Now you have set me thinking P , you do have fab legs )

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