To think this could solve teachers' problems

[NovemberRains]

Teachers want higher pay.

Their employers currently pay a whopping ~24% into a defined benefit pension scheme!

AIBU to think that a lot of their problems could be solved if they were just given the option to either continue as they are, or get a 20% pay increase and have a 4% employer contribution to a standard defined contribution pension scheme like the vast majority of the population get!

I respect teachers, but based on my knowledge when overall remuneration is considered including pension and holidays, they really aren't underpaid compared to other professions!

It's a similar story for other public sector professions!

So how would that solve where the funding comes from and address the recruitment problems?

It wouldn't solve the biggest problem, which is the ridiculous workload.

Because it’s about workload, recruitment and retention crisis and budgets being slashed to the bone

But the strikes are about pay? I agree - give them a 20% pay rise and 4% employer pension contribution as I don’t think the value of the pension is widely understood/taken into account.

YABU. You try being a teacher for a week and see how you get on.

"I respect teachers, but..."
🙄

How would that solve the issues of recruitment, retention, workload and general conditions?

It seems like there's an awful lot of threads at the moment from posters essentially arguing "teachers are paid well and get decent holidays so they should get over it".

Because pay and conditions is all you can strike about.

So ill informed

I think a lot of younger teachers would prefer that as many opt out of the tps because they cant afford the employee contribution. But generally you look at the whole employment package so its no a payrise if the total package is the same, just shifted around.

You have to remember the TPS is an unfunded scheme so the contributions dont really go in a pot with your name on, its like an arbitary figure to fund the current teachers drawing a pension, then when your time comes you get a good pension out based on service, average salary and some other figure. But thats paid out of a different government pot. Sorry thats a bad explanation

Which of these problems would it sort?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4777266-the-government-is-banking-on-parents-not-caring-about-children-or-education

It’s not going to fix the imminent collapse of school buildings or the mental health crisis or the child poverty or the SEN crisis is it?

The problem is that there is not a real, individual pension fund in the normal sense. My "teacher's pension contributions for the last 30 years go straight into the payments for the current generation of retired teachers. That means that if schools didn't make these employer contributions, there wouldn't be anything left in the pot for the pensions they're paying at the moment.

I feel the same about people working in the Health Service. They all get good pensions, and more holidays than the average worker. If they all gave up, say, 2 days hols each year, they'd still have more than most people, and the NHS might be able to employ someone else (or maybe they wouldn't need as many more people).

The reason some people get pissed off with teachers is because most of them have only ever been teachers and don’t seem to grasp that all of us have jobs we find stressful at times. And they also chose to be teachers!! I didn’t as was well aware it would be stressful being with kids all day 🙈

🙄

Plus- they get good holidays. A good pension in comparison to most people, and are only contracted to work 32.5 hours a week. Yes- they have to do more than that, but it is still less than most full time people. So a head of department is getting maybe 45k plus a good pension, for working a 44 week contract (paid over 12 months).

Given you're the expert, please post your words of wisdom on this thread, once you've actually read it.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4777266-the-government-is-banking-on-parents-not-caring-about-children-or-education

I don't think the recruitment and retention issue or the strikes is about pay at all. It's about workload and unreasonable demands.

Teachers contractual terms and pay are excellent, if the demands were comparable to other jobs. Most teachers understand that.

TBH you could double teacher pay and it wouldn't be enough to retain most of the ones who are leaving. There isn't a salary that makes it a sustainable way to live.

They are striking for a FUNDED pay rise. Any pay rise they get now is taken out of the school budget so therefore they can't afford TAs.

The employer contribution will be going even higher next April. Defined contribution pensions are unaffordable for the public sector as they were (and are) for the private sector from the 1990s onwards.

If you bother to read what teachers say causes them stress, you will see that it isn't the kids for the most part. So rude and patronising - as if teachers are on strike because kids are stressful and we should all have had the sense to realise that and not go into the profession like you, you clever-clogs.

Bingo. The government isn’t actually offering them more money. They’re just saying ‘take more out of the barely adequate pot already allocated to your school.’

In some private schools it is going this way. You can stay in the Teacher's Pension Scheme, but you may not get any pay rises. TPS is being phased out for new joiners. Yet at the same time school fees are massively increasing massively too.

noblegiraffe- nope. I work in a field very closely to teachers and am well aware of how disgruntled they are. The whole education sector is a mess. But demands for 18% pay rises etc just grate me when I know early years practitioners and care workers are on minimum wage and just quietly getting on with it!
It is the complete lack of awareness of what is happening in early years/ social care/ SLTs/ CAMHS that grates me.

32.5 hours a week

Hollow laugh

Try 65 or more.

Why are people seemingly so offended by teachers who've only been teachers?
Do doctors or pilots or lawyers get criticised for "only" being doctors or pilots or lawyers?