VICTORIAN teachers will be asked to trade some of their holiday time and pupil-free training days in return for higher wages.
As thousands of striking teachers shut down schools across the state yesterday, Education Minister Bronwyn Pike said the Government was prepared to pay teachers more, provided they agreed to measures designed to lift performance and make the profession more productive.
Some proposals on the table include changes to pupil-free training days and annual leave. Victorian teachers have 11 weeks of holidays a year, 15 days of sick or carers leave and four pupil-free training days, which are used by teachers for planning or professional development.
As part of the wage negotiations, the Government is reviewing the time teachers have away from the classroom, and may shift pupil-free days — most of which are in school terms — to the start of school, before students resume class.
"We'd like teachers to come back to school before the students so they can talk together in teams, plan in teams, and improve the quality of their programs," Ms Pike said. "A lot of teachers already do that but we'd like that to be standard across the board, and then we're prepared to talk about how teachers can get extra money for that increased attendance at school."
As thousands of striking teachers shut down schools across the state yesterday, Education Minister Bronwyn Pike said the Government was prepared to pay teachers more, provided they agreed to measures designed to lift performance and make the profession more productive.
Some proposals on the table include changes to pupil-free training days and annual leave. Victorian teachers have 11 weeks of holidays a year, 15 days of sick or carers leave and four pupil-free training days, which are used by teachers for planning or professional development.
As part of the wage negotiations, the Government is reviewing the time teachers have away from the classroom, and may shift pupil-free days — most of which are in school terms — to the start of school, before students resume class.
"We'd like teachers to come back to school before the students so they can talk together in teams, plan in teams, and improve the quality of their programs," Ms Pike said. "A lot of teachers already do that but we'd like that to be standard across the board, and then we're prepared to talk about how teachers can get extra money for that increased attendance at school."
A couple of things, how will making teachers come back in the holidays save money? Teachers are on a salary, no matter how many days they work. It won't make any difference to the budget. Where are the so-called productivity "trade-offs"?
I'd be quite happy to get rid of a couple of the pupil-free days. As I've said before, the whole school PD days are a waste of time. We usually get so-called experts in to tell us how it could be done. There is going to be a shortage of experts if they are all going to work in the same couple of days before school starts. They will also have nothing to do for the rest of the year. How will they survive?
Teams - how I hate that word. It's an import from the business world and should have been left there. 'talk together in teams, plan in teams, and improve the quality of their programs' - that's not going to happen. You can't shove a team together under duress and expect it to do some productive work, which is what is going to happen.
But Bronwyn Pike is all hot air and is more interested in looking good.
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