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!

I imagine, the reason teachers get pissed off is because everyone has a (misguided) opinion about how easy there job is, how few hours they work and how little demands there are on their time.
There is a huge recruitment and retention issue atm in teaching, do you really think this would be the case if there weren’t some rather huge issues in education?

@Janedoe82

Teachers are critically aware of the problems with social care, CAHMS, early years because they are picking up the pieces! Referrals that never meet criteria, a limit of 6 week support for early help, no CAHMS provision unless suicidal, all being referred back to schools to deal with!

Teachers aren't demanding an 18% pay rise so you clearly don't know as much as you think.

I don't think EY practitioners are particularly happy at the government because of their recent announcements about free childcare. Those on minimum wage will get a pay rise of 9.7% as minimum wage is going up by inflation, this is going to screw childcare providers who can't afford to pay that increase.

There has been so much misrepresentation about the teacher pension scheme over the last few months, especially from people trying to compare two different types of pension when they work in completely different ways.

The truth is that the employer is paying nothing. It's a paper exercise: no actual money is being transferred, nothing is being stored away waiting for teachers to claim from or invest. Teachers have a pension deducted from their pay, in theory, but there's no pot it's going into. Current pension contributions are redirected to pay those currently claiming their pension and then, once that's covered, the rest is redirected into the treasury.

The teacher pension scheme was actually extremely healthy prior to this government messing around with it. A study by the IMF (if I remember correctly) stated that the pension scheme would be entirely self-funding for another 30 or so years before needing government support.

The worrying part in all that is that, while people claim teacher pensions are amazing, all that actually exists is a vague promise that, at some point in the future, the government will pay you a pension. With all the changing goal posts, who knows whether that will be the case by the time those who are "paying in" now get to retire.

I take it you missed this news story. Or perhaps you are just here to troll?

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/teachers-working-60-hour-weeks-being-driven-out-of-the-profession-leaked-report-says-12846562

It really isn't less than other full time jobs. That is the problem. I am part time- as our three of my colleagues and we have all gone part time to work NORMAL full time hours. I get paid for 3 days but work at least 40 hours per week. How is that acceptable? I also work for at least some of every single holiday to stay on top of the workload. My full-time colleagues work ridiculous hours and far more than normal full time hours When will people start listening to the concerns we have about actual workload and how it isn't sustainable?
A HT has killed herself because of the pressures of the job- she's not the first and won't be the last. Teachers are leaving in their droves. People who don't do the job need to stop making assumptions or comparisons because they don't know what it is like or what the job entails. If it wasn't shit, then people would not be leaving in such high numbers. That is despite the supposed good hours and holidays. If people are still leaving in huge numbers, then when are those outside the profession going to accept that something is really wrong here. Teachers are not afraid of hard work- if they were then the whole system would collapse. Same as it would if teachers stopped subsidising the shit school budgets out of their own pockets. Parents need to wake up and realise that our own children are in serious shit if something doesn't change very soon. My daughter has not had a Science teacher all year. Children's education is being massively impacted and it's only going to get worse. It's not a race to the bottom and parents and teachers need to stand together. Education is in crisis. I don't see anyone telling the doctors the NHS isn't in crisis. We can all see that for ourself because the issues are very visible. The issues in Education are not so visible to those on the outside but I can assure people the crisis is real and utterly terrifying to me as a parent.

I am going to step away now- my point is- I am well aware being a teacher is a hard and stressful job. But so are LOTs of jobs which deal with people, but it is the teachers who seem to be the profession who are most vocal to the point that everyone else is simply switching off as they are getting on with things.

I've worked in the City and in publishing so not just been a teacher. As have half my colleagues in the science department. We know what other jobs entail. And we know teaching is a mess. I now think 60 hours a week is normal, just to get my job done. Lots of my colleagues are currently on school trips, where they will be on call 24/7 in their holidays. No extra pay or time off.

This ridiculous thing about making reporting of abuse a legal requirement just shows how stupid this shower of a government are. It has been for years ! We all do mandatory training annually to keep updated.

My colleagues are leaving in droves. And can not be replaced as there are no applicants. If people want their children taught by trained staff they better wake up v soon.

@Janedoe82 " I am going to step away now-"
Yes, best you do.

I work in an independent school where teachers are on comparable salaries to the state sector and we do have to fund the emoloyer’s contribution to the TPS - currently 24.68% and likely to increase again next April. It’s not affordable and neither is a big pay rise if we are to keep the fee increase affordable to parents.

What a pile of bollocks. Have a look at how many other people are on strike before claiming that everyone else is just getting on with things.

So the government treat us like crap and we're supposed to just lie down and take it?

where do we draw the line?

70 hour working weeks? 80?

@Janedoe82 your field can't be that closely aligned to teaching or you wouldn't have written such complete nonsense. To say teachers have no grasp of what's going on in CAHMS is completely nuts!
Also by your logic they should 'get on with it quietly' because others elsewhere prefer not to make a fuss..Well they bloody should be! The whole country should be up in arms over this shitshow of a government

How is them getting a pay rise from nowhere going to solve the problems??

Getting a pay rise from the pension contributions would be funded from the pension contributions??

Teachers whinge so much.. every job is stressful! Just don't be a teacher then..

On a parenting site - where most people will have children in education, - @Janedoe82 is complaining that the people who teach those children are raising concerns about the education system. Wow.

Well lots of us are leaving the profession so we are following your advice.

@granddadtumble precisely. This is exactly why we keep getting screwed over. Because the government relies on exactly this kind of attitude.

This

If I had a pound for every time I'd heard "just don't be a teacher", I might be able to chip in to replace one of the 7 TAs we no longer have because we can't afford to pay them.

Teachers keep claiming it’s not about the pay rise and yet they are the ones asking for it 🤨 They’d have you believe they are doing it solely for the children because it suits their narrative.

"Keeping things affordable" in this case would mean intentionally and deliberately forcing people to accept a lower payment for the service they provide, even though it's worth more. That's artificially suppressing wages and it's wrong. If the rising costs of providing private education means that the cost of that education must also rise then so be it: that's basic business and economics. If that means some can no longer afford it then they can no longer afford it. It's a luxury expense.

You'd never say private pilots couldn't be fairly paid because that might make flights too expensive. Nor would you say private medical practioners shouldn't be paid their salaries because it makes medical insurance too expensive. Private teachers are no different.

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).

Ha. Okay, so explain to me why there is a horrific recruitment and retention crisis in teaching if the job is that good? Also, why aren't you a teacher...?

(Any teacher would laugh at 32.5 hours BTW. And last summer, I worked upwards of 40 hours a week each week DURING THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS!! Dont talk about things you don't understand as though you do...)

I have said I am aware that there are major issues in the education system. What I think is totally unrealistic is the pay demands- where exactly is the money coming from??
yes- until up the scale the pay isn’t great but once worked way up it I don’t see what the problem is? It is better than social workers and nurses

I am not a teacher as I know it would be crap

We yes that is big the problem. We don’t have enough teachers and many more are leaving than are training to become teachers.