Teachers in New South Wales have explained the reasons why they’re striking after marching on NSW Parliament demanding better wages and working conditions.
Dressed in red shirts emblazoned with the text ‘More than Thanks’, fired up teachers called on the government to offer them more than a three per cent pay rise on Thursday.
The NSW Teachers Federation is asking for a pay rise of between five and seven per cent to keep up with the cost of living.
Aussie teachers on Reddit and social media have cited work load as their main concern.
‘I earn $110K. My problem isn’t really how much I’m paid,’ one teacher wrote.
‘It’s the ridiculous amount of work that has nothing to directly do with teaching and learning. It’s the changes in policies that require teachers to support a wider array of students in the same class.’
NSW Teachers have gone gone on strike demanding a higher pay rise and more staff to fill shortages in schools
Other teachers on Reddit and social media expressed their view that the workload was the single biggest reason for the strike
The same teacher added that schools have ‘no idea how to measure workload’ and teachers often have to ‘parent students’.
Another posted: ‘Pay isn’t even the problem though – it’s workload.’
‘My contract says 30 hours a week, but I’ve easily cleared that by Wednesday because of admin. What I wouldn’t give for a PA, just so I could do my job.’
Private and public school teachers marched through Sydney’s CBD towards State Parliament on Thursday
Education staff carried signs with a colourful array of memes and images of famous artists, movie stills and cartoon characters from The Simpsons and SpongeBob during their protest in Sydney.
Others had blunt, but inventive, messages slamming the government over teacher shortages and pay.
One teacher’s amusing sign read: ‘I could make more $ on this pole’.
Another sign referenced Hogwarts – the fictional school from the Harry Potter franchise. ‘This wouldn’t happen at Hogwarts,’ it said.
Another protester held up an image of Simpsons character Edna Krabappel – Bart Simpson’s school teacher on the beloved animated series – slumped against her chalkboard. ‘Overworked’ is written in chalk above her head.
An animated boiling kettle was spotted on one sign with the creative phrase: ‘Teachers have reached boiling point.’
Another protester held a picture of a amusing meme which featured stills of the characters Miss Honey and Miss Trunchbull from the kids movie, Matilda.
Written next to the image of Miss Honey is: ‘What I thought teaching would be like.’ Then written below, next to the still of Miss Trunchball, is: ‘What teaching actually feels like.’
One striker had a hand drawn image of a unicorn and claimed that, like unicorns, well-paid teachers ‘don’t exist’.
One teacher’s sign read: ‘I could make more $ on this pole’
Another protester held up a sign that referenced the wizarding school from the Harry Potter series
Other teachers had pictures of characters from the beloved animated cartoon The Simpsons to illustrate their point. Above, Edna Krabappel
Education staff held signs that featured memes and colourful imagery, while others resorted to more direct messages to the NSW government
One striker had a picture of a unicorn and the words: ‘Well paid teachers are like unicorns, they don’t exist’
It’s the third strike in six months called by the NSW Teachers Federation and Independent Education Union NSW/ACT, representing 85,000 teachers.
Salaries for public school educators have reportedly gone up nearly 30 per cent in the last 11 years.
‘We have a crisis in the form of a teacher shortage, a crisis that is the government’s own making,’ NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said on Wednesday.
NSW public and private school teachers are striking for 24 hours over staff shortages and pay. (stock image)
It’s the third strike in six months called by the NSW Teachers Federation and Independent Education Union NSW/ACT, representing 85,000 teachers
‘The government has known for years the causes of this crisis: uncompetitive salaries and unsustainable workloads.’
Mr Gavrielatos said there were 1906 job vacancies in schools across NSW this year, up 67 per cent from the same period last year.
‘As has been the case all year, hundreds and hundreds of classes have been disrupted, classes have been split or merged, classes have been left in playgrounds, schools libraries, schools halls, unsupervised or minimally supervised,’ he said.
The union says more than 20,000 of its members showed up in Sydney’s CBD on Thursday.
One of them was Peter Kitonga, 50, a legal studies teacher at Sir Joseph Banks High School in Revesby in western Sydney.
“I have been working as a public school teacher for 13 years and our salaries have not kept up with inflation,” he told AAP.
“It’s the duty of the government to ensure that students have a qualified teacher in front of them. You can bring teachers on board by giving them better pay.”
The Federation’s head Angelo Gavrielatos said Premier Dominic Perrottet’s unwillingness to negotiate with the union was “failing teachers and … students”.
He described the chronic shortage of teachers on Thursday as ‘a classroom crisis’.
‘Thousands of classes are uncovered across the state because of a lack of teachers,’ he said.
‘The premier’s three per cent salary cap is a ‘take it or leave it’ proposition that is far below inflation.
‘He is ignoring the evidence that current salary levels are turning people off teaching and a significant increase is urgently required.’
Debbie Jones, a Catholic primary school teacher from North Sydney with more than 40 years of teaching experience, said she was worried for the future of her profession.
‘Teachers are just running on empty. We’re all exhausted,’ she told AAP.
‘There’s just not going to be any (teachers) left. Pay teachers what they’re worth and they will come,’ she said.
But Education Minister Sarah Mitchell was disappointed by the decision to strike and said it was politically motivated.
Ms Mitchell defended the government’s public sector wages policy, calling it the most generous in the country.
Labor Education spokeswoman Prue Car said the government should address the teacher shortage by lifting wages.
‘Teachers are out the front (of parliament) pleading with a government that refuses to listen,” she told reporters.
‘Our children are suffering in education outcomes because the government refuses to hire teachers.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk