I have put a copy of his edited letter at the end of this post.
He criticises both the union and the government over their incompetence. I tend to agree with him. The union and the government are both useless. I am proud to say that I was one of two people in our school (out of about 80) who didn't vote for the current agreement. I could see what was going to happen. It is interesting that within two days of us getting 2.25% pay rise, the politicians gave themselves a 4% pay rise. We have to increase our work load to get more money so why don't they? They are hypocrites. They claim they have an independent tribunal to give them pay rises. What rubbish! The members of the tribunal know they won't remain in their quango junket if they don't give the necessary pay rises. We should tie our wages to politicians wages (and allowances).
Chris didn't answer the original writers questions as to why an experienced teacher has trouble getting a job. Another writer did. In a word, money. Graduate teachers are cheap so schools are encouraged to employ them. Experience is irrelevant. Once again, the learning of students is put last. As graduate teachers find out, you learn the most in the first few years as you find out what does and doesn't work.
I did my Dip Ed with a Chris Curtis at Rusden college many moons ago. The same Chris Curtis?
Chris wrote:
AMANDA Campbell is the latest in a long list of teachers complaining abut their working lives. What none of them has mentioned is that the decline in pay, staffing and working conditions is exactly what they themselves actually agreed to.
Victorian teachers foolishly endorsed the 2004 enterprise bargaining agreement, and were forced to accept higher teaching loads, longer periods, inadequate time allowances and the abolition of their management advisory committee, while secondary schools overall remained almost 2000 teachers short of their previous staffing levels.
The Government expects teachers to cave in because that is what they did in 2001 and 2004. If teachers think they deserve the pay and conditions that a much poorer state could afford more than 25 years ago, they will have to stop being wimps, stop voting for deals that make their working lives worse and start walking out of their schools en masse.
AMANDA Campbell is the latest in a long list of teachers complaining abut their working lives. What none of them has mentioned is that the decline in pay, staffing and working conditions is exactly what they themselves actually agreed to.
Victorian teachers foolishly endorsed the 2004 enterprise bargaining agreement, and were forced to accept higher teaching loads, longer periods, inadequate time allowances and the abolition of their management advisory committee, while secondary schools overall remained almost 2000 teachers short of their previous staffing levels.
The Government expects teachers to cave in because that is what they did in 2001 and 2004. If teachers think they deserve the pay and conditions that a much poorer state could afford more than 25 years ago, they will have to stop being wimps, stop voting for deals that make their working lives worse and start walking out of their schools en masse.
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