Personal: #Nutstrike

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We all know what this is, the strike by Teachers.


I will jump straight in to what they are striking about?


Budget Cuts
I actually agree with the Government on this one, Schools have had their budget cuts or shall we say increase Student/Classrooms with no extra budgets.  Although they have lost access to "extra" funding from disability benefits and grants.


Having worked in IT for many years in Education, I've personally witnessed endless amount of waste.  Not by support staff or by Students but instead by Teachers.


Does a School need a Mac costing £800-£1000 instead of a PC which costing £200-£300?


Does a School need to subscribe to an online service costing £5000 a year just to be forgotten and not used?


Does a School need to print endlessly costing £40,000-£50,000 a year?


Waste.


This is why Schools are having "budgets cut", it's because Schools have never held back on spending money.  They have never evaluated cost value.  There is a reason why Schools are forced to do the 3 quotations to Governors - because it forces them to prove they are getting good value.


It's why the general public are angry when they strike over budgets being cut.


I managed to work out that in a few years a School has wasted £400K on "IT" that wasn't needed but it looked "pretty" and all of it was scrapped.


Pay
An NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher) fresh out of Education and has no life experience other then School > College > University will have a starting salary of £19,000 to £23,000.  This is considered to be poor pay.

The average performance management review pay increases are around £1200 a year.  When a promotion occurs to say Head of Department, that can go up by roughly £7,000 > £9,000 a year.  An Assistant Head will earn roughly the same more and likewise for a Deputy Head.  So a Deputy Head would earn roughly around £45,000 a year.


The Head Teacher can earn anything up to and beyond what the Prime Minister is on.  The average of a HT seems to be around £75,000.


According to the Teachers, they are under paid.


Having worked in my job for a long time, I've learnt how to do things in my own free time with little support.  I've been expected to do what professionals do in the private sector for double my pay yet do teachers care about that? course not.




Working Conditions
This part, is the straw that niggles me.  The assumption they are the only professionals that work long hours for no extra pay.


I am currently on 37 hours a week and have been for a long time.  I've never been paid for "overtime", I have never earned more for working from 8AM till 10PM at night for an event.  I have never been paid for server maintenance on site nor at home till late.  I remember once doing an urgent email server defrag and being up at midnight to make sure it ran smoothly on a Friday.


Did anyone care about?  Did the very teachers who complain about this say thank you?  Did they have sympathy for this?  NO.  So these teachers who accuse others of being uneducated because they don't fully understand are just as oblivious to other professionals that work long hours.


I access my email at home, my time off I am on my emails, when I am on holiday if there is Wi-Fi that's right - I am on my emails.  Making sure the team are working, nothing urgent is occurring and generally helping out.
I remember once when a major server had failed and we had to order a part.  This server was critical and I stayed till 9PM on three nights (starting at 8am).  I did this for the HT because we got along very well and he understood it was out of my power.  I advised the School to spend money on something and they ignored me (being the IT  pro) so that cheap server failed.


One night I went home at 5PM when there was nothing I could do but wait for everything to restore.  I would work from home keeping an eye on it.  I found out the next day s Head of Science had criticised me for leaving ON TIME when I should have stayed.  So a teacher who should know better had no clue about the hard work I had faced and long hours of no extra pay.  Was I at the time on a good salary?  NO I was on less than an NQT would be on today.  Then again - I am grateful for what I have in life.


We are expected to do MORE
So teachers clean, do caretaker work and perform admin tasks for the School.


Well, so have I.  I've been asked to be a cleaner, photographer, PA, TA and supervisor by teachers.  They don't even ask "nicely" instead you will see my name on a list, that expectancy, that "You should be grateful for a job" attitude in my face.


Do you think the teachers really care? course not.  They have a job that is beyond what anyone else does professionally.  It's why I can't have too much sympathy for them.


Why the Teacher Unions need to go
I believe the Unions are responsible for the majority of the issues.  Teachers know they are protected, they have legal advice on their contracts and pull out every stop to protect their fellow kind - teachers.


They are the ones who want "strikes" and "protests", they are the ones who push to protect teachers and NOT for the better life of our children.  I know a lot of people that choose this profession just because of the summer holiday - not because they want to teach.


The teacher unions prevent Head Teachers from removing poor teachers, if I was poor at my job I can promise you I would be shown the door and treated very poorly.

Scrap the teacher unions and concentrate what you are paid to do - TEACH.  I would tell that to the Government and to YOU.


The Holidays
These are actually not holidays for teachers, they are expected to get the standard 24+ days off a year which doesn't include bank holidays during that 24.


So what are they expected to do during those periods? Lesson plan, assessments, marking and data tracking.  They are not for teachers to take off to Spain every chance they get.  I would like to add I have been fully aware of some teachers that DO NOT come in during the holidays and DO NOT work either.  How do I know this? because I've been openly told by teachers.


Today I've been watching the Twitter feed and the entire thing echo's Brexit.


You are uneducated - walk in our shoes - you are clueless.  Insults aimed at criticising teachers.

The truth is, teachers can't take criticism.  They do not like being told no.  They hate not getting their own way.


I've worked with them for a long time and I'm fully aware of what they are like.  This isn't just an IT person stating this, this is from every one that has ever worked with teachers in or out Schools.


Teachers, need a dosage of reality after all again they have only ever done > School > College > University > Teaching.  They have never left education.


Final Note
On a last mention, I got told once "You chose your profession, it's occupational hazard to deal with people moaning at you all day.  You should be grateful you have a job and you are here to do what I tell you to do regardless if it's IT or not".  This was a very line that I got thrown in my face by - A TEACHER.


I've heard this line a lot through my career aimed at Support Staff with no care.


So why should I, the:
Voter
Parent
Tax Payer
Professional Worker
Support Staff
Done jobs OUTSIDE of Education


I will not have sympathy for Teachers when they will not have sympathy for others and automatically accuse "everyone" of not understanding.  I am a professional and I am fully aware that people work long hours for NOTHING and everything can be out of their POWER.


If you read my other post regarding the difficulty of Teaching, you will see that I understand much more than they will ever understand about my job.