Back to school
Aug. 27th, 2013 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartDetail about the wonderful changes behind the tag. Read it to your own peril.
The new term has started yesterday. For now just for us - the kids won't come until September 1 - but it's going to be a very hard school year, thanks to the completely idiotic educational reform our glorious government shoved down our throats. It's fullo of shiny new ideas.
For starters, every teacher has to spend 32 hours a week at school (it was 24 until now). We won't get any paid overtime ever, and if someone gets ill and can't come to work, well, the others who have to sit around there anyway have to take over their lessons, without any extra pay. We are supposed to receive a payrise (last time we got one was in 2005 or so), but by losing the overtime and replacemet pay, we'll actually earn less. Isn't it wonderful?
Last year some idiot in the Ministry of Education came to the glorious idea that there should be a PE lesson each day. Our school specializes in foreign languages, so the kids have 6 lessons in a row each day. Imagine the delight of the 5th-term-kids who have to stay at school for a 7th lesson, even if it's PE!
Also, in theory at least, school is supposed to last from 8a.m to 4p.m, every single day. With us having to organize activities for them, of course. The problem is, neither the kids nor most parents want them to be there all day. Some already do, where both parents are working, and those are already covered. The others would prefer to be with their families, or have sport in the afternoon, or music lessons, or private tutors to hepl them improve or whatnot. They most certainly won't stay at school in the afternoon, and why the hell should they? Last time I checked the family had to do something with the raising of children.
Besides, we don't have the room for this shiny new concept. We've got 660 kids in our school, all classrooms are doubly beset; the kids have to wander from classroom to classroom because we can't simply separate a room for, say, physics or chemistry, and we only have one gym and two tiny rooms where PE classes can be hold. The colleagues have to take their PE classes to the nearby playgrounds and such, or to a swimming pool, or to ice-skating...
Have you ever tried to go swimming or skating with 30-some six-year-olds twice a week? It's a wonderful experience, especially if you have to take the bus with them half across the city. Needless to say that the lessons before and after such trips are copmpletely useless, but hey, who cares? Our kids might never learn to read or to write because they're too busy doing sport, but they'll be strong and healthy, right?
Furthermore, the "reform" stripped school directors from practically all their executive powers. They've been degraded to administrators who have to ask permission from the new, centralised Educational Centre or what the heck it really is (nobody knows) before just about everything. Kitchen personnel and the cleaning teams are no longer under their jurisdiction. We have no idea who (if anyone) will pay for our printer ink or even for the chalk we're writing on the blackboard.
So, the perspective is rosy, isn't it? For the first time in my life I wish I were about 3-5 years older. Then I could have safely retired last year and would be sitting at home, feeling sorry for the others.
Okay, I'm shutting up now. There's nothing to do about it, and at least for the next term, I still have a job, which is more than many people can say. I just needed to get this off my chest - and wanted to post about something else than just the update alerts.
The new term has started yesterday. For now just for us - the kids won't come until September 1 - but it's going to be a very hard school year, thanks to the completely idiotic educational reform our glorious government shoved down our throats. It's fullo of shiny new ideas.
For starters, every teacher has to spend 32 hours a week at school (it was 24 until now). We won't get any paid overtime ever, and if someone gets ill and can't come to work, well, the others who have to sit around there anyway have to take over their lessons, without any extra pay. We are supposed to receive a payrise (last time we got one was in 2005 or so), but by losing the overtime and replacemet pay, we'll actually earn less. Isn't it wonderful?
Last year some idiot in the Ministry of Education came to the glorious idea that there should be a PE lesson each day. Our school specializes in foreign languages, so the kids have 6 lessons in a row each day. Imagine the delight of the 5th-term-kids who have to stay at school for a 7th lesson, even if it's PE!
Also, in theory at least, school is supposed to last from 8a.m to 4p.m, every single day. With us having to organize activities for them, of course. The problem is, neither the kids nor most parents want them to be there all day. Some already do, where both parents are working, and those are already covered. The others would prefer to be with their families, or have sport in the afternoon, or music lessons, or private tutors to hepl them improve or whatnot. They most certainly won't stay at school in the afternoon, and why the hell should they? Last time I checked the family had to do something with the raising of children.
Besides, we don't have the room for this shiny new concept. We've got 660 kids in our school, all classrooms are doubly beset; the kids have to wander from classroom to classroom because we can't simply separate a room for, say, physics or chemistry, and we only have one gym and two tiny rooms where PE classes can be hold. The colleagues have to take their PE classes to the nearby playgrounds and such, or to a swimming pool, or to ice-skating...
Have you ever tried to go swimming or skating with 30-some six-year-olds twice a week? It's a wonderful experience, especially if you have to take the bus with them half across the city. Needless to say that the lessons before and after such trips are copmpletely useless, but hey, who cares? Our kids might never learn to read or to write because they're too busy doing sport, but they'll be strong and healthy, right?
Furthermore, the "reform" stripped school directors from practically all their executive powers. They've been degraded to administrators who have to ask permission from the new, centralised Educational Centre or what the heck it really is (nobody knows) before just about everything. Kitchen personnel and the cleaning teams are no longer under their jurisdiction. We have no idea who (if anyone) will pay for our printer ink or even for the chalk we're writing on the blackboard.
So, the perspective is rosy, isn't it? For the first time in my life I wish I were about 3-5 years older. Then I could have safely retired last year and would be sitting at home, feeling sorry for the others.
Okay, I'm shutting up now. There's nothing to do about it, and at least for the next term, I still have a job, which is more than many people can say. I just needed to get this off my chest - and wanted to post about something else than just the update alerts.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-27 05:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-27 08:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-27 05:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-27 08:13 pm (UTC)Life in school is going to be funny, though. We are 50 teachers working there and have two rooms, a larger and a tiny one, with altogether three computers and two printers at our disposal. Some don't even have a desk in the teachers' room, and several people share one book-case in there. Being forced to prepare for the lessons there, instead at home where at least everyone could sit down comfortably will be a riot.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-27 09:28 pm (UTC)That sounds really bad. It sounds like they are being totally unreasonable. Good luck surviving it all!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-28 06:05 pm (UTC)But, as Mum always says, as long as we're healthy and there's no war, we'll manage somehow.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-28 08:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-28 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-29 04:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-30 04:42 pm (UTC)At least teachers "only" get beaten up occasionally over here. [/sarcasm]
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-30 10:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-02 04:45 am (UTC)And yes, tightening budgets are leading to drastic choices everywhere. I hope they do not lead to the kinds of ugly behavior we've seen in some countries in the past: ethnic conflicts, religious fanaticism and such.
Wishing you and Mum safe! [hugs]