Victorian Teachers' Industrial Action

There are many articles, blog posts and comments on the Internet at the moment all discussing different people’s take on the current action undertaken by the Victorian teachers against the State Government.

At first I was quite apprehensive about writing a post about this, as there can often be negative reactions to posts about teaching, with many members of the public making comments about lazy, whining teachers. Furthermore, that many teachers are somehow trying to insinuate that they work the hardest of all professions. Comments like teachers need to enter the real world where performance pay is the norm and that there are many professions where employees don’t get paid overtime or time in lieu. The smack downs usually come thick and fast as responses and I wasn’t sure I wanted those to read when they could be personally levelled at me…. However, how can I really be upset about these types of comments, without taking an opportunity to try and explain and perhaps change these perceptions?

So my attempt is as follows….

In most employment scenarios, if you are unhappy with your pay or conditions, you can approach your employer and request improvements.  If your requests are not met, you can then move to another company or organisation that fulfills your requirements. All teachers in Victoria who are employed by the State Government are under an agreement with no ability to negotiate individually and therefore can’t change these conditions unless they move to a private school or undertake industrial action en masse. So, when negotiations break down with the government, teachers are left to their only avenue to voice their grievances – industrial action.  There is also the reality that quality teachers seeking better working conditions will leave the state system, move interstate or leave the profession.  An article published by The Age on 30 May 2012 revealed close to one third of beginning teachers couldn’t see staying in the state system beyond five years due to working conditions.  (http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/teachers-seeing-no-future-in-state-system-20120529-1zhfz.html) All of these scenarios are concerning for the future of quality state education in Victoria.

Teachers are not just concerned about their pay; they are concerned about their working conditions and the cut backs across the board to many support services and funding. However, the public does not have any problem with teachers’ gripes over these areas, but they do have a very emotive reaction to teachers discussing their pay and therefore this is the area of the industrial action that the media focus on.

Teachers are not paid overtime or time in lieu. They are not paid the extra hours worked to complete tasks such as organising and going on camp where they are working and accountable for children 24/7 for the duration of the camp, to attend concerts, information evenings, fundraisers, fairs, parent teacher interviews nor for the whole gamut of other activities outside the taught curriculum. Yes, there are many school holidays but teachers have to work during holidays as well to finish off work from the previous term and prepare for the upcoming term.

Further activities outside of face-to-face teaching hours also include:

• Reviewing individual assessments and planning a differentiated curriculum so that, as an example, a Grade 5 child who is operating at a Year 8 level is still being as challenged in their class as the child who is in Grade 5 but who is operating at a Grade 3 level. Planning a day of classroom activities that has modifications so that all children in the class can be challenged and experience success.
• Composing Individual Learning Plans for students operating either well above or below the standard expected at their level.
• Training and improving their knowledge so that their skills are always up to date and challenged themselves. Ensuring their knowledge is current for the students in their care who may have special needs, E.g. Autism or dyslexia, or for helping children's social and emotional needs. 
• Keeping open communication with parents, especially those of children with strong academic, social or emotional needs.
• Whole staff meetings, level meetings, morning briefings, curriculum area meetings e.g. Literacy Committee.
• Constructing reports
• And much more....

Teaching is not the only profession where time is required outside of the normal working hours and many professionals do not get paid overtime nor time in lieu. Teachers are not suggesting that they are the only ones who work extra hours, however, what they are trying to highlight is that teaching is not just the time in the classroom teaching, the time they are supposedly paid for. Teachers are not trying to insinuate that they work harder than other professions, rather, they are just trying to educate others as to what it is to teach in today’s schools. Teaching and school is a completely different ball game than when we were all at school.

Returning to the contentious issue of reports - this is a mammoth task for teachers and takes a great deal of time after school hours and on weekends. Part of the industrial action in 2012 was to not write comments on school reports.

To try and explain this action it is helpful to understand the process of constructing a report. I have tried to simplify the process of writing Primary School reports down to some dot points.
Teachers:

• Review and collate assessments throughout the year in order to accurately mark each child's progress into the computer program that creates the progression points (the dots on the table) and then meet with other teachers to discuss and moderate the results so that one teacher's marks are the same level judgments of another's. 
• Meet with teachers from your school to decide which comments will be standard across the school or level and how the reports will be structured.
• Meet with teachers in their level and across the school to moderate comments and ensure fair and consistent marking.
• Write comments that correlate to each level or competency they have marked children at across each curriculum area, e.g. writing, reading, computers etc.
• Insert the applicable comments into each child's report. Write individual personal comments about each child and review all comments within each written report to ensure that it is accurate for that child and that you have assessment records that indicate what you have written to be correct, that it reads well and fits within the report character count. 
• Proof read reports (around 20,000 words at my school).
• Submit reports to be reviewed by another teacher then amended for the changes required. 
• Proofreading another teacher’s reports. 
• Print, collate and sign all reports

Reports are a legal document, therefore every word within your child’s report has been very carefully included and checked that the teacher has evidence from assessments that support the comments and progression points. It is a laborious process that is completely undertaken outside of school hours which is why it was chosen as a very visible action to include. The exclusion of written comments from the Semester 2 reports did not mean that teachers taught less content or collected less evidence of this learning.  Many, many teachers felt uncomfortable with not writing comments for children, however, they also did not want to have more strikes. They know strikes can have financial implications not only for themselves but for families when parents have to organise care or time from work to look after their children. They did however need an action that received attention that would hopefully put pressure on the State Government to negotiate on better terms. Just as the Nurses closed hospital beds and the Police put police cars with their lights flashing next to speed cameras to highlight their grievances. Sadly, it appears many parents have directed their anger at teachers rather than the State Government for placing them in this position.

Teachers are in regular contact with parents of high needs students and many families were contacted by the teacher with a verbal update of the child’s progress.  Parents were also invited to contact their teacher, either prior to reports being issued or to explain dot points given, either in person or by phone.

It is sad that children did not receive comments in their report. I still have my school reports and flipped through them when I heard of this action. While doing this, it was also clearly obvious the change in reports from when I was at school, my reports were a list of check boxes of competencies that were ticked if I achieved or left blank if I hadn’t yet. I also had a sentence or two written by my teacher that was a personal comment. Again, clearly highlighting that teaching is very different from when we were at school. Also sadly showing that any action taken by teachers has implications for children which is judged far harsher than nurse strike consequences of no elective surgeries or police strike consequences of reduced number of speeding fines. This fact also sits very uncomfortably with many teachers.

Teachers are striking against the introduction of performance pay. Many comments posted in response to articles about this online suggest not wanting performance pay is another way teachers are avoiding accountability and in the comment author's corporate job they have performance pay and it works just fine, that teachers need to move into the real world.  Like most professions, teachers are accountable for their actions and have a performance review annually.  This is conducted with the principal and either the teacher or the principal is required to write a lengthy submission as to how their teaching has upheld the education regulatory body, The Victorian Institute of Teaching’s Professional Standards.

Teachers do not disagree with performance pay because they do not want to lift their performance. The problem with the version of performance pay suggested is that teachers work in a very collegiate manner, sharing knowledge and resources and supporting each other to achieve the best outcomes for all children at their school. The suggested version of performance pay means that only a percentage of teachers in each school are eligible to receive the extra pay based on their performance.  Such a model may be the norm in many corporate environments, but in education this would turn each school into a teaching competition which erodes the collegiate and supportive environment that schools currently operate within.

How do you even judge a teacher’s performance? It is suggested, mainly through academic results.

Why would a teacher want to help another teacher with their previous experience of a child's needs when they could miss out on the pay rise the other teacher could get from the results their advice could achieve?

Why would they share an activity that will really help a group of children in another teacher's classroom when it will improve that teacher’s results?

Why would they want to teach your child with special learning needs when it will be harder to get results out of that child and focusing on them will take time from others who are easier to achieve results from in the class?

Why would they want to teach your child with behavioural issues when they will distract others in the class and reduce their results? What quality teachers will be retained in the State System and what quality graduates will be attracted to such conditions?

If your child is naturally talented at learning in all areas and has no behavioural concerns then it will probably not have a great impact on you and your family, but is that really the attitude you want in the school your child attends? And how many children like that truly exist?

Honestly I don’t believe it would be the end of education as we know it and not all teachers would take that stance but it would shift the focus at schools which I believe to be detrimental to education in Victoria.

Teaching targets are talking about children and not figures and dollars. How do you measure the achievement of a teacher working with a child with autism to be able to make eye contact when speaking to their peers? Or the child with a language disorder being able to understand and use vowel sounds? Or the child who has struggled all year with their writing, writing an entire page that they are confident enough and proud enough of to share in front of the class? All things to be celebrated and that are brilliant achievements but will not look wonderful on a teacher's class performance test figures.

Teachers work to develop children's academic knowledge and ability but also assist in developing their social and emotional intelligence. How do you measure these areas of a child's achievement or development to add these important areas into a teacher's overall performance?

How do you measure these in a way that is standardised so that every school in the state can complete the same reviews and scales to assign their performance based pay? So that a percentage of teachers from each school can receive a pay rise, even though those teachers that receive the pay rise at one school may not have outperformed those who didn't receive a pay rise at another school simply because only a percentage at each school can receive the rise?

How can this really be implemented so that quality teachers across the state are recognised and remunerated appropriately? I personally don’t believe that it can and the State Government will not budge at all from their proposal.

As I have mentioned, teaching and our schools are very different from when we were at school. Teachers have to have the knowledge and skills of how to educate children with special needs such as Dyslexia, Auditory Processing Disorder, Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder etc, etc, etc. All children who previously could have just been labelled “naughty” or “a bit slow” by classmates now actually have teachers who are skilled in the strategies and requirements for teaching these children and giving them the same opportunities as other children. Also not forgetting about the high achievers or gifted students who also need strategies and different requirements to ensure that they are always challenged and their learning extended.

Teachers need to now teach things like cyber safety, resilience, understanding and acceptance of different cultures and ethnicities, environmental sustainability and physical and emotional wellbeing as well as the usual literacy, numeracy, humanities, physical education and arts.

They have to know how to administer an EpiPen as well as the usual first aid and know how to comfort a child without opening themselves up to a parent suing them. They must have forms and paperwork for all manner of policies, processes and approvals - just in case. They must keep a record of everything in case they are sued and to support their reports and discussions with parents.

They have to make breakfast for some kids who come to school without having eaten or look after the emotional wellbeing of the child whose parent is gravely sick.

All while teaching and extending the learning of all children within their class no matter where that child’s skills are currently.

Yes, there are other professions with just as much pressure, expectations of unpaid overtime and difficult challenges but I am certain if you look at the pay of those professions the majority, maybe not all, but the majority would be paid far more than what our teachers are paid. Teachers’ requests are not unreasonable in my opinion and they deserve the community’s respect, not negativity.

Teachers do not get into teaching for the pay but usually for the difference that they can make to children and our future. Education is a long term investment and therefore does not generally win votes unless there are big visible things like laptops in schools or buildings created, tangible things that the wider community can actually see. What schools really need is proper funding and support for students, especially those with special needs so that they are supported and do not detract teacher time from other students and for the work of teachers to be respected and paid for appropriately.

I am not the greatest wordsmith and probably not the best person to write something like this but I couldn’t miss this opportunity and still express my sadness over the negativity that can be directed towards the teaching profession.

Teachers are not suggesting they work harder or longer than anyone else. They are simply just pleading their case as they have to publicly in order to renegotiate their employment terms. They do feel uncomfortable with taking industrial action as anything that they do impacts children and their families, which goes against why they got into teaching in the first place, but in order to protect the working conditions and children’s education these are their options.

If you are fed up with the industrial action teachers are currently undertaking please contact the State Government to ask them to put an end to it – currently they are the ones with all the power and from reports from the AEU they have not budged in their negotiations. Discuss with your child’s teacher or principal the challenges they are facing at your child’s school and include them in your communication with the State Government and be part of the solution and resolution of the industrial action and support teachers and education in our state. Please?

The AEU Victorian Branch suggests you can take action by completing the form on this website http://keepthepromise.com.au/unhappy-anniversary/ but I think any communication to the State Government will help.

Thank you