Nurses and teachers.
Today here more than 22,000 schools were disrupted with a mass walkout of Union members. And if you think our strikes are bad, this is the fifth time this year teachers in England have walked off the job demanding better pay and conditions.
And it’s raised the question here of who picks up the slack and looks after all these kids for parents who have to keep working and can’t take the time off.
There’s a lot of debate here about what they’re calling ‘Granny day-care’ where grandparents are having to take over the caregiving.
Some parents are saying it’s too much for elderly grandparents who may have health issues or not be fit and able enough to suddenly be running round after small children all day.
It can cause friction between families who’re expecting too much from grandparents.
Others are saying it’s just not fair – it’s free unpaid work, and many busy grandparents with full active lives of their own are having to donate time and energy to little ones above and beyond what counts as being grandparents. So the debate is on.
The reality is, and similarly for us in New Zealand, many of these families don’t have the resources or finances to cope with much more disruption, take time off work, or hire extra help.
And that’s before we get to the kids themselves who’re facing yet more upheaval.
I mean I was feeling terrible about dragging my daughter to London for work when the original plan was to drop her home from New York so she could start the term on time after the holidays, but with plans changing and us coming across to London sooner, she ended up being dragged with us so I had to write to the school and explain – because you need permission from the Dean to withdraw your child or have them off during term time.
So I had to write a lengthy email to explain and I was feeling bad about that. But then I realised, between Anzac day, teacher only days, a scheduled half day off for parent teacher interviews and now the strikes all inside the timeframe we’re away, she’s hardly missing a thing.
In fact it’s probably more educational for her being here at this point. I do feel for teachers though.
Have you been in a classroom lately?
I mean yes they get a lot of time off as people point out, and it looks like they technically work shorter hours than most – but do they?
The teachers I know are working long before school starts, and long after. They’re marking on weekends, they’re prepping themselves admin wise and they’re dealing with a myriad of extracurricular stuff they have to be responsible for.
All the social issues they have to deal with inside their classrooms, kids with issues that even ten years ago would not have been such a big deal.
They’ve got absenteeism at record levels, kids missing out, new rules and regulations to stay on top of as curriculums and education standards keep changing.
It’s actually a huge toll on many very capable people. And they all get lumped into the same basket of course – the Union ones, the non-Union ones, the capable ones, the useless ones, so that doesn’t help either.
So I have sympathy for all sides.
Kids facing disruption, teachers still having to battle the system, parents left picking up the pieces, and as they’re pointing out here in the UK, all the grandparents getting roped into this for free childcare too.
Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.
5 comments:
As a pertinent aside, it is quite common in Asian societies for grandparents to raise their children's children. It makes a lot of economic sense as it releases young women who have just had a child back into the workforce.
You missed out the part about how they are also failing another generation of our children. All while refusing to push for a sensible solution.
If the strike was to force the education ministry and political parties to find a solution for a failing system I would support them. Instead it is just more money and who cares about the rest.
I don't have any sympathy, they get paid very well. Sure it's not the same as being a radio show host, if they want to earn more start a business and they could see where that takes them.
I agree with CXH in many respects. Our schooling is an educational fiasco.
However I would extend the blame out further to include baby boomers who mostly had an excellent education in their youth, but were unappreciative and instrumental in allowing the now child centered philosophy to replace what we had.
Now it is classrooms of unteachable children because of no discipline ,no instilling of knowledge, no effective teaching methods for teaching the basics or higher levels of learning, along with ghastly open classrooms, project work , group work, over load of computerised learning ......... The whole lot have been shown by research to be ineffective.
Teachers are not responsible for the introduction of all this nonsense but academia infused with socio- political, psychological craziness.Teachers are the victims as well as the children.
Old folks stop being so selfish and realise this country is in an educational crisis. Learn how to teach the basics, help your grandchildren and other children
.learn . They are our future. Nothing much else is as important.
I have had, as a tutor experience in teaching grandparents how to teach their grandchildren reading and arithmetic Patience and time is all that is needed.
The current school methods with few exceptions are rubbish.Ignore them.
Right on, CXH and Erica. I'd be happier paying teachers more if they actually came out and demanded the system be fixed and produced decent results. The outcomes are there for all to see, so what do you say teachers, apart from your want for more money?
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