Polish teachers on Strike.

Polish news:

Teachers are on strike today.

oh, this bodes well for the students.

My Gimnazjum students told me about this. Quite right, the crappy pay and horrid conditions they have to put up with. Is this how education is valued here? Well done the strikers!!

its what they did over here in april went on strike half the teaching force of the uk

Its seems that teachers are underpaid across the board. There were grumblings at the Exeter IATEFL about just who badly ELT workers are exploited. Is that the case for you Seanus?

they should always look after the teachers because they are also considered as key people.

There is an old saying in the Canadian System that goes like this:

Those that can, Do.
Those that can't, Teach
Those that can't teach, Teach Gym.

so, what does that really mean? no school until they get a deal?

some of the issues they are striking about i definitely do not agree. the want to dumb on down the system. how uncool is that?

Really just a poke at the quality of teachers sometimes found in the Canadian system. There have been several strikes in the last couple of decades, at the end of it, it is always the students that suffer unfortunately. The longer it went, the more hostility the teachers were subjected to, though.

thanks shawn H. i know what your post means as that is used here (USA) in the same manner and in a way i agree. but my Q was in general to the topic at hand because, as you said, i feel the students will suffer in the long run. i also want to know how this strike works while students are still in school.. hmm

There can be exploitation for sure but I was referring to those less fortunate than myself. I don't wish to discuss my salary here but let's just say that it's more than what state school teachers get. I really feel sorry for them. There has to come a point where they crack.

I sympathise with the teachers, but aren't they kinda showing they don't deserve the raise yet. The reason is their lack of critical thinking, no imagination and certainly no signs of good strategy.

Who in their right mind goes on strike just a few weeks before their services are not needed for 2 or 3 months to come?

If I were a teach in Poland I'd rather bite he bullet till September, and go on strike then.

Come on Darius, that's the best time. They are critical resources and presumably don't need their June salary THAT much. This is a time when teachers guide their students through the MATURA process and, without them, hinders the whole progress of MATURA and beyond for these students. This is human nature, at least strikers have the decency to compromise after some time. Look at the Israel-Palestine conflict, there is no budging and people are earning off of it. Hardly fair!!

The Poles have bitten the bullet once too often, I don't see why they should have to do it again.

Lack of critical thinking, Darius, u teach what u r told to teach. I guarantee u, if I had a free hand as to what I taught my students, I'd be super popular and never out of a job. I have very limited scope for creativity based on the format of the book. Try and see it their way

Debatable, but I concede that you may have a good point too.


I agree but that is a different story. Educational system has always been a reflection of the current times. Whether successfully so, is another matter.

I c ur point 2. I applaud them for sticking up for their principles but the welfare and concerns of the students should be placed first. Sometimes u have to bite ur lip and grin+bear it.

Another factor may be that state teachers have more latitude than I do. They prepare their own lessons more I've heard. That being said, they still operate under harsh conditions and getting the attention of the authorities may be no bad thing. Some people in these authorities need to be jolted into life and earn their keep.

Teachers in Poland have traditionally been poorly paid. Teaching is at the lower scale of the professions' and is, therefore, correctly lower paid than civil engineers, dentists and accountants.

Not always Michał, not always

I am a teacher of English at a high school near krakow, Poland. Out of about 35 teachers 5 didn`t go on strike, including me. Why?

There were 3 postulates of striking teachers: increase salaries by 50%, keep curent regulations concerning earlier retirement, and preserve the Teacher Carta.

I would like a pay rise, sure, I don`t mind early retirement. But I reject the Teacher Carta which makes it practically impossible for the school principal to fire a lousy teacher.

I have met a few lousy teachers in my life. In my own school I had to write an official complaint and ask our principal to intervene in case of a totally incompetent biology teacher. Such interventions had been made before, but hadn`t helped much because she is incorrigible. And nothing can be done because Teachers Carta protects her.

Another case concerns my oldest son`s primary school. Parents have already written to the principal a few times asking him to replace the incompetent teacher. Already in the first grade!

Sorry, guys, I don`t want to hurt you if you are good teachers, but the truth is there are too many lousy teachers in Polish schools. I am saying it both as a teacher and a parent of 3 children, one of whom goes to a state school.

Pay rise is certainly a nice thing but it won`t improve the quality of teaching and general standard of education in Poland. Bad teachers will grab happily it but will carry on with their incompetence, laziness, lack of education (Do you remember the scandal last year with the teacher who ordered kids to repeat loudly: Columbus was Polish!).

The Teachers Carta must be abolished, in my opinion.

Thanks for taking the time to give a firsthand account of the teachers' strike and the reasons for it - appreciated

Its interesting what you say about the Teachers Carta - you give the impression that teachers are striking to preserve it whilst you appear adamantly against it.

Can you provide an explanation why there are so many who appear in favour of keeping it


LOL now why am I not suprised by this !!! ;)

Columbus was Polish, wow, so what?

Most of the best inventors were Scottish.

Thanks for the explanation. Maybe they are not good because they lack motivation and not talent?

er,the point being that Colomb,er,wasnt Polish :)
(suppose next they will be saying Lief Ericson et al were obviously Polish because they actualy "discovered" North America first....:) )

What's the education system in Poland like?

Who runs the school system for grades K-12? National government, local school board or ?

Who pays the expenses of running the school? Are there separate taxes for education?

Are there national standards, cirricula and tests?

On taking on this post, you would have been aware that teaching English as a foreign language is an unskilled job, which gains 0 points on the Australian Immigration list. Young people do not spend time abroad teaching English in the hope that they are going to make millions, rather they are just paying their way around the World with their rucksacks. I could not teach English in Poland, in fact I could not afford to work in Poland. That is why Polish teachers would rather stack shelves in Tescos in England than write on the black board in Poland. I can not understand the mentality of the British thing that they are owed lots of money teaching something so basic and trivual as English conversation.

And u think Professors are any better? They spout out the most useless crap sometimes. They are indulgent wankers. It's not an unskilled job being a teacher.

No, being a teacher is not an unskilled job but being a teacher of English overseas such as TESOL is an unskilled job.

Explaining sth 2 ss isn't a skill? Gaining their attention isn't a skill? Communicating sth tricky 2 elementary ss isn't a skill?

Millions of young people around the world choose their education based on what they consider is good for them. Making a pile of doe is not necessarily everybody's dream. We all need to go through life paying bills and such, but if someone, like you, considers a 5 bedroom house an achievement bigger than becoming a good teacher (even if working for little money) then you are a very sad individual.

When you die all that will be left after you is a structure that will eventually become a pile of construction debris. That and some incorrect translations on this forum.

Teachers hope to leave much more than that.

Who has a five bedroomed house? Nobody young goes to Poland teaching English because they expect to earn lots of money-it is, after all, a young man's job. The best paid TESOL jobs are advertised in South Korea where you can expect to earn around £10,000, which is still peanuts. Nobody goes to Poland to earn lots of money, especially Poland of all the countries in Europe. I can not see what construction debris has to do with anything in this argument at all.

I can see debate with the mucky porker is going on in earnest. Debaters worth its oinking counterpart?
:)

Me