[etni] Re: Renee Wahl's message
- From: "Yehudit" <elgavi@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Etni Messages" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 17:10:30 +0200
Renee wrote:
" Everyone who works within the schools knows what I am about to
discuss. I say that all the demands of the high school teachers can be
met within the budget 1) if policy makers admit a gigantic mistake and
correct it. 2) If they look inside the school scheduling and retrieve
the wasted hours.
I can support these points 100% or 150%!!! As a teacher who retired two
years ago and has marked Bagrut tests since 1990 I can't agree more with
what Renee had to say.
This summer we heard at the marvad that the Maths teachers had
presented a petition requesting to cancel the moed bet exam which has no
advantages whatsoever and simply results in shortening the school year
as far as teaching in 12th grade is concerned (and in many cases 11th
grade too). Pushing the exam dates into May in order to schedule moed
bet in July means there is no teaching at all after the Pesach vacation
and very little after Purim because of "matconot".
Then there is the extra pressure of preparing for exams in January which
cuts out a lot of proper teaching - the 11th and 12 grades are simply
begin put through a "bagrut machine"!
Another point that warrants attention is the fact that the Bagrut
marking in English begins before the end of the school year (usually
during the first week of June) which means that the exam is being
checked by teachers who are still working at school ( in grades 9-11 who
may be studying until June 20th). A teacher who has to spend several
hours at school and then come home to 8 hours a day of checking tests is
certainly not at his/her best and we have to finish large numbers of
tests in 3 days! I'm sure the marking under these stressed conditions
is NOT as reliable as it should be. This was NOT the case when we had
only one exam date in mid-June and all the marking was done in the
summer vacation. I know this is not directly connected to the issue of
the strike, but Renee's point about wasting time and money on extra exam
dates is certainly relevant to the points I have brought up.
On a personal note regarding our pay - I retired after 20 years of
teaching ( I went into the field late in my working career), with a
salary of 7000 sh.. before tax (that includes maximum gmulim, BA degree
and teaching certificate). Just for the comparison, one of my sons
completed his degree in electronic engineering 9 or 10 years ago and
his starting salary in his first job was 13,000 shekels. I noted that in
the Histadrut agreement the maximum "darga' - 8 may give something like
that figure. Just something to think about!!
Yehudit
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