[etni] budgeting the teachers' demands
- From: Renee Whal <renew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:06:27 +0200
Hi,
There is yet another issue that needs to be aired regarding the strike. The
Treasury and the press keep harping on the fact that the government cannot
afford to met the teachers' demands for smaller classes, better pay, etc.
because of the billions of shekels that this would cost the country.
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.
1) In which of the countries which pay their teachers a decent salary and have
the highest pupil achievements do pupils sit for a matriculation exam in 2
major subjects (English & Math) 6 times or more each?!! Which of these
countries can afford this luxury, costing millions (billions?) of dollars and
wasting precious teaching hours? This brain child of Limor Livnat is an
extravagance that the richest countries in the world have not been able to
afford!! The modular Bagrut in Math and English is a disasterous and needless
drain on the education budget. Letting pupils take the exam over and over
does nothing to enhance their knowledge of the subjects being tested, only
their exam-taking skills. I would like to see the figures for how much this
'reform' costs - writing & piloting 12 exams in English and 12 exams in math
(Moed A and B), summer and winter, paying testers, paying graders (each grader
earns about 11,000 shekels for each 3 weeks of the grading period), the
administration and security expenses, etc.
In the past, pupils sat for one English exam at the end of the 12th grade and
one Math exam at the end of the 12th grade. The percentage of pupils that
passed these exams (which were also more challenging than they are today), has
not changed significantly! In fact, the previous generation had a much firmer
knowledge of these subjects.
2) The way the school schedule is set up now incorporates a tremendous waste of
money and teaching hours. High school teachers are actually teaching 30% less
than (I'd say that was a conservative figure) the number of hours that they are
paid to teach. Worse than that is the fact that the schools are paying twice
for this 30% - once to the teachers who aren't teaching and once to the
subcontractors who are taking our kids on trips (Poland, school trip, day
trips, etc.) , giving lectures, running sports activities, doing special
events, etc. In countries where kids go to school till 3-4pm, most of these
activities are done extra-curricularly or at least there is some kind of limit
to the number of teaching hours that can be devoted to this!! It says in my
schedule that I am teaching 5 hours of English in my Bagrut class. The truth
is that since the beginning of the school year, I haven't taught more than 3.
So, does the above ring true with you? How can we get these issues before the
public?
Renee (again)
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