Have your say on teaching conditions!
Teaching can be a very rewarding profession, and teachers have a great role in their students’ intellectual, personal and social development, thereby influencing the whole nation’s development.
However, teachers worldwide are confronted with inadequate working conditions, which prevent them from performing as well as they would like to. This is where EI affiliates and teachers’ unions can make a difference, by demanding and obtaining improvements in working conditions for their members.
This year, World Teachers’ Day will focus on Better working conditions for teachers which also implies better learning conditions for students.
We want you to tell us about your working conditions, how they impact your work and affect your ability to deliver quality education and how your union has helped you to secure improvements for you and your students.
Please use the form below to send us your testimony.
Sir. Michael Bashir, Denmark
I was a teacher and a refugee education coordinator in a refugee settlements in Africa. As being both teacher and in charge of refugee teachers,I have experienced much on the side of teachers in general.
Teachers are the cornerstone of education. When they are trained and competent, pupils can expect high teaching.In displacment situations,it is difficult to attract and retrain qualified teachers. The pay is low and the "incentives" paid by international agencies are not coordinated with government salary scales.
Reallocation of budgets by funders-both international agencies and national goverments-to place priority on the training and renumeration of teachers would greatly contribute to educational quality. Onbehalf of the refugee teachers, I wish you male and female teachers all over the world a warmly "World Teacher Day".Time is coming for all of you!
I used to teach in a school (Wodome Salvation Army Primary School) where there is no office for teachers. We close from school anytime there is the suspicion of pending rainfall.Teachers don't want to remain at post for a long time due to the numerous amenities (such as portable drinking water and post office) that the community lacks.
We are happy we are not alone in our efforts to make education the focus of public attention as it should always be.
Our school, The Professional School of Tourism - Varna, has been on strike for a week. About 80 percent of the schools in Bulgaria are. We demand that 5 % of the GDP be given to education and 100% raise of salaries. Our average current salary of 150 Euros per month.
Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education and the whole government and the president seem to be blissfully unaware of our problems.
But we know complaining is not the way to succeed, we are determined to win, no matter what it takes. We are going on a peaceful march at 17:30 and we will set up all-day-long tent camp in front of the Varna Municipality.
Our strike continues.
I've been a teacher for three years already. I do enjoy teaching and I like this occupation. It's always a joy to share knowledge with students, to discuss different things with them, to see how they develop, etc. As for teaching condition here... unfortunately the salary is one of the lowest in the country, and schools and universities don't have enough facilities... That's what's bad about this job... I wish teachers would be more respected here and would get better payment.
On working conditions:
- Regarding our health, we come up against a lot of difficulties and there is not enough being done in terms of prevention efforts
- In peripheral areas in particular, the conditions are very difficult: the schools' infrastructure has deteriorated, there are no libraries, sport facilities or computers labs. Some schools don't even have lights, or, in hot areas, ventilation. In urban areas, the schoolyards tend to be very small, in primary and secondary schools.
In Niger, our working conditions are very difficult : we lack resources and have inadequate training. We have managed to set up a teachers' union platform and now take decisions collectively. Today, with the help of this platform, we are managing to solve a certain number of the problems we face.
This is what happens to Portuguese teachers:
A Democratic European country, they said, where police breaks in teachers trade unions’ offices before demonstrations; where teachers unionists were cordonned with fences by police, in order to limit their unions activities; where UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers was never heard by government that imposed a new career plan with a negotiation which terms were imposed by government (is this democracy?), where the new imposed teacher’s career plan is extended up to 40 years. Teachers’ salaries in this country don’t follow the UNESCO recommendationeither, of course, and year after year teacher’s see their standard of living degradating. Day after day teaching became less attractive in this country, nevertheless, I know that Portuguese teachers will keep trying, maybe because “teaching is an activity from the heart”, as someone said!
At least, I try to believe it, too!
Where is the respect?? We educate the youth of society. We are the future.
Would the corporate world work in these conditions? Would they stuff 30+ bodies into a room in the heat without air conditioning? The computers are on overload and can't handle the heat. The humidity makes everyone sleepy and cranky. Students have asthma attacks, may faint, sweat, and smell. I thought we were teaching proper hygene too? Don't we teach it all anyway? We are students' parents, brother, sister, therapist, nurse, role model and finally, TEACHER. Who has patience at this point? Would corporate America work under these conditions? They wear there LONG sleeved collared shirts to work because there is air conditioning in the office!
In Kenya, the issues faced by the higher education sector are:
- The commercialisation of faculties has 'killed' the core business of the universities, namely, teaching, research and community services
- The policy of defunding universities has meant, little research and threatened academic freedom, including a freeze on upward mobility and recruitment of academic staff
- Market-orientedness has resulted in performance contracts which are arbitrary and unlawful
- The privatisation of university education has watered down quality education leading to declining academic standards.
- Have succeeded in securing competitive sourcing for chief executives of the public universities
- Have distinguished [them]selves as the visible watchdogs against corruption and maladministration
The paradigm is that the working condition of the teacher influences the learning condition of the child. Hence teacher quality in term of output performance invariably is influenced by the working conditions. Thus inadequate condition of teachers- poor renumeration (payment, lack of incentives, etc) affects teacher quality.
Most unions who are responsive and proactive have made the difference. They fight for better renumeration/payment for teachers and the provision of other incentives for effective teaching and learning.
As a trade unionist, I would like the governement to vote more money in education and improve the working condition of teachers, giving teachers separate salary structure, and take provisions for other allowances for them. Their place of work should also be conducive.
I am a parent of a school going child. For me a teacher is THE Quintessential person in society. I consider their tasks to be holistic in that they impart knowledge and therefore lay the foundation on which society is built. Every child needs a 'teacher' - formal or informal. The role of a teacher is therefore an important one. Teachers are entrusted with the lives of juveniles - what these juveniles are taught can make or break society. The role teachers play in our lives has been trivialised and therefore one reads of disrepect shown to teachers where kids abuse them. One needs to look where and how did this decay in perception take place. Is it that children are abusing their rights and that educators are incapable of balancing the need to be firm incase of conflicting with childrens' rights?
Personally, I have given my child's educator full rights to reprimand my child without using corporal punishment - meaning no hitting, but the educator has the right to tell my child when he is wrong and to tell him why he is wrong. If my son doesn't listen and straighten out then as a parent I take the necessary steps to correct my child and work together with the educator to ensure my child doesn't misbehave.
So, what I am saying is there needs to exist a partnership between parents/guardians/educator/learner. Underpinning this must be the principles of honesty, integrity, and goodwill.
I would like to focus on three problems, which deeply affect my mood as a teacher:
1) I feel very bad about the striking difference between schools not only in different towns, but also in the same town. How can I teach cooperation, when schools and headteachers (and some teachers) tend more and more to be competitive?
2) In some schools teachers are not even allowed to have free paper or coloured chalks, or other didactic supports. They have to buy what they need to do their job, and they earn little more than 1000 euro a month. I sometimes do so, at least. And yet I wonder if this is fair...
3) Italian schools (especially in Southern Italy) are very old and seldom well kept. Classrooms are small and crowded. Few schools have a library, a gymn or an open area to allow physical exercise, or even free game. Pupils are always sitting at their desks, which obviously makes them nervous and restless. I feel sorry for them, because I think that "we", the adults, are misbehaving in their respect. I hope they won't grow up too angry.
Awarenwss about World Teachers' Day in India in my opinion is low especially in technical and management education. Something has to be done. Teachers' role in professional education is more significant and of gravity in shaping up future engineers and managers.
One principle I believe in is teaching by doing. Teaching just in the four walls o the class is not really the aim of teaching and teachers as teaching should not be separated from outside life. Teaching is very important indeed as we do not deal with paper and ink; but with minds and souls. Being good just in the class while not implementing the love of humans outside is the wrong perception of teaching.
Therefore, acquiring more knowledge on how to be good is very good. Better is to put this knowledge into action, and best is to live the knowledge.
My paramount objective in fact is not teachers but students. If I can get more enrichment and pass it to my students, I will really be happy. Simply because they themselves will be happy with learning. In this, aiming at quality teaching with students will enhance other teachers to investigate and follow the same path. So, motivating other teachers has the second rank in my objective. It is indirect, inductive and based on observation from the whole experience with students.