Teachers consider strike action over pay

26 Aug 2010 11:20a.m.

Bob wrote:

Dear sixth former
You are right about how important your teachers are for your learning and how well they know you. That is why it is important that teachers protect their work conditions that they presently have for the teachers and students still to come in the future. That is why we must stand up now and fight in order to look after the health of secondary education.

26 Aug 2010 08:17a.m.

Margaret wrote:

This article misses the point Janika. The big issue for secondary teachers is the potential loss of working conditions that we already have. The pay increase is secondary. The challenge for jounalists is to report on the issues of class size, non-contact time and increased workload issues.

26 Aug 2010 08:16a.m.

Larry Dixon wrote:

Janika, it's time you came back to your old secondary school and talked to the teachers about why we're threatening to strike. It's not about pay, that's a small part of it. It's more about the government trying to claw back our working conditions such as non-contact time, restrictions on class sizes, etc. The negotiating team from the government has not a single member with a background in education (just like the Minister of Education herself really).

25 Aug 2010 06:14p.m.

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed with the comment above.

25 Aug 2010 05:11p.m.

Dan wrote:

Go the teachers. This education minister needs to be brought down a notch or 2.

24 Aug 2010 09:26p.m.

Sixth Former wrote:

Ok. See, this is bad. Very bad. If they go into strike mid-September they will be just in time to catch the end of many schools entrance exams (the 'mock' exams for end of year finals). Surely this isn't that bad right? We have just sat one set of exams, so we don't really need teachers then? This is arguably one of THE MOST crucial times to have our teachers. I don't know about nation wide but our school needs our entrance exams to help a majority of students patch the wholes in their understanding. A lot of schools base their study and revision periods around what students need help on, as identified by these exams. Without them we risk going into our finals under prepared, and ready to make the same mistakes. We need our teachers to help clarify, reaffirm points, and explain where we went wrong. Without them we can solve some of our problems, but our teachers know our strengths and weaknesses too, and can help tell us how we can help ourselves. If these strikes go ahead I can see many students finding out the repercussions the hard way in november.