Baillieu’s broken promise to teachers

Vanguard July 2012 p. 4
(Contributed)

Elect us, and we will make Victorian teachers the highest paid in the land promised Liberal Party leader Ted Baillieu, a descendant of the squattocracy.

Once elected to government, Baillieu interpreted his promise somewhat differently to teachers. It came out this way: We only meant that to apply to about 10% of teachers, you know, the outstanding ones. The rest of you can have a 2.5% increase. However, if you are prepared to increase your classroom teaching hours, increase class sizes, and accept more responsibilities, we can get rid of 100 teachers and perhaps be a little more generous – for example, performance bonuses.

Strangely enough on June 7, more than 35,000 angry and ungrateful teachers went on strike in what was the largest teachers’ strike in Victoria. 12,000 teachers attended a rally and marched to parliament in Melbourne, giving a resounding NO to the Baillieu government. Teachers, new teachers and principals all marched together, wearing red T-shirts declaring their unity, “Teachers-Principals”.

Teachers interviewed by journalists and speakers at the meeting were unanimous in rejecting the concept of selected colleges receiving higher awards on the basis of an allegedly superior performance, arguing that teaching is essentially collaborative, not competitive.

The negotiations, which have been taking place for about eight months are concerning the salaries of teachers and principals in the state primary and secondary schools. The government is trying to introduce methods which have been tried in England and the United States, and failed, and are being rejected.

The large numbers of teachers employed on yearly contracts is another area of concern for the union. These teachers face uncertainty at the end of each school year regarding future employment, and don’t have the conditions of normal employment, such as long service leave, sick leave, maternity leave, etc.

The union members at the stopwork meeting voted overwhelmingly to support a range of bans and limitations, and a further program of stopworks. The Australian Education Union executive has decided to begin this action in term three if an acceptable agreement has not been reached before then.

Government schools cater for about 65-70% of students in Victoria, almost all of whom are children of working class people. Developing and maintaining a reasonably strong primary and secondary school system has been made possible by the determination of teachers and parents to make it so, in spite of resistance from governments, both state and federal to find the funds necessary to build and maintain buildings, provide necessary equipment, and recruit sufficient teachers.

Ultimately, stopping the deterioration of public schools is up to the people who rely on public schools and others who understand their importance. Teachers are exposing the problems. They need broad support from allies.