Schools in Poland to strike tomorrow

The teachers' strike is now confirmed. Thoughts? My opinion is that it is ridiculous that an EU country is apparently determined neither to pay its school teachers a living wage, or give them the right to strike, thus blackmailing them into a short period of industrial action by denying them an average of 170 zl a day in salary.

There isn't a single EU country where entitled workshy teachers don't have their manicured, callous-free hands stretched out (and that's just the male teachers) demanding the state tax the population more.

These teachers are not part of some intellectual class because the genuine intelligentsia of traditional European values and thoughts were all slaughtered by Soviets or Nazis or those that survived were finally pushed out by Cultural Marxists.

Teachers are failing their students and they know it and they don't care.

Indeed, it is the same teachers demanding more money which are the same ones demanding the borders be opened on the basis that their country's youth are not prepared to do the jobs needed now or in the future.

That's small change. I'm surprised they can get anyone to work for that.


Their dodgy budget would look far wose if they had to pay living wages to public sector worses. Do you remember the nurses' strike?.

Hard to stop them all striking though. And there's generally support for them within society.

I'm 100% behind them. They do a hard job for peanuts, and while I work for a private international school and get paid very well compared to my colleagues in public schools, they should be equally well compensated for the work that they do.


Don't be so sure that it will be short. Public opinion is on the side of the teachers, too.

I don't know if that is what a day's salary equates to, but that's what teachers here in Tri-City tell me they will be losing every day of this strike, and that is why some of them say they can only afford a token strike.

It can be even less. A newly qualified teacher will be lucky to take home 100zł/day.

Delph, some teachers I know earn 2,000 zl a month. They cannot afford a strike of more than a week, and the authorities know that, hence the derision from the other side.

I've just checked, and although the national Solidarność has signed a deal with the government, the individual school branches of the union are rejecting the deal and will strike regardless.

Doug, it's true, but at the same time, I don't think the government will be able to hold out. Parents might be able to take a few days off, but if the exams are conducted by unqualified and inexperienced invigilators, then there will be huge legal problems for the government.

When I worked in the state sector 25 yeares ago, I challenged my fellow teachers to take industrial action. We can't do that they cried. The director would replace us tomorrow as 30 people are waiting for our jobs. (all nonsense of course - but unionisation was never effective or de-communised)

Teaching is not a job - it's a position held. But the Polish system will never change unless you put a loaded gun to their heads (so as to speak...) One twat in PIS even said if teachers want more money they can always have more children, to qualify for more payments. As if the education of our children were a laughing matter.And to think Ironside and other jokers on this board make idiot references to communists - when we still have to suffer socialist nonsense such as this.


Teachers tell me this union is worse than useless Delph, and they back the opposing union. Such is true here anyway.

Now the demographics have changed, they're perfectly placed to achieve something.

You know, the most interesting thing about this strike is that it's united teachers for the first time in over 25 years. People have truly had enough with the government, and the "cow+" nonsense has just inflamed tempers even more.

They are trying scum things like offering retired teachers sums of money to invigilate in exams Delph. I would have thought such is illegal, and effective picketing is required, but as you say, the teachers are not united.

Poles seldom are when it comes to industrial action, unfortunately.


But if Solidarity members have agreed to a pay deal, the teachers are not united are they?


Ah - right, understood....I think:) What were Solidarity doing then, agreeing a deal above the heads of their membership?

They are! What's actually happened is incredible - Solidarność are normally very disciplined, but individual branches and sections of the union have been making it clear that they will strike regardless of what the central authorities say, and that they will simply leave the union if they get stopped. It's amazing, but from what I'm seeing, teachers are acting as one regardless of which union they formally belong to.


They're trying, but as of Friday, they had barely any takers because they don't want to risk crossing the picket line, especially in smaller communities.


No, the union has agreed, the members haven't. Astonishing.

You forgot to add that the Solidarnosc leader of teachers is a member of the ruling party PiS and he signed a deal with his boss.

Well the Americans are all in bed so we are spared their wisdom.

Pain in the backside for me with the kids lounging around but I support the strike and I think most taxpayers are strongly behind the teachers. PiS put themselves in this position by crowing a few weeks ago that there was money for everything.

au contraire!!!!

PiS's attitude makes some sense. It knows that large numbers of teachers will never vote for them while they're very scared of the upcoming European elections which is why JK is making promises to their feckless base in an effort to make sure they can tear themselves away from the tv or shopping malls (aren't the elections the last sunday in the month?!) and make it to the polling station.

The funniest is of course the cow and pig payments.... the sweet aroma of flop sweat is in the air...

Of course the handouts for the PiS base mean that needed expenditures elsewhere can't be made (especially after the expensive educational reform boondoggle) the government could waste tons of money on that but pay teachers?

I'm with the teachers %110!

Wait a minute! Are you saying that the Polish teachers are just as stupid and as leftist as their American brothers and sisters? I mean, mindless, liberal, pro abortion, pro gay marriage, global warming fanatics who hate their own countries and love the foreign brown scum?

The same. If a society undervalues its Teachers, Doctors, Nurses, Carers, Police, etc, the whole community ends up paying a heavy price.

Not really. The value of teachers and teaching is greatly exaggerated. I was a student in the poor, communist controlled schools. Then, I did 5 and half years at Polibuda, not necessarily a Harvard or Yale class. None of this was a problem in my life.

Looking back, I was lucky not have internet and Facebook.

Paying teachers more means squat. Ours, here where I live, make $130 grand a year. That's district 211 in Palatine, if you want to check. Are the results any better then id they were making half of that? Of course, not. They got to that obscene lever because the teachers' unions are as much gangsters as Teamsters used to be. Nothing but raw power to strike and extort.


Sorry. It should have been: Are the results any better than if they were making half of that?
Also: level, not lever.

Not much learning goes on without them. PiS would probably like that; the less critical thinking among the populace, the more support they have.

What teachers get paid in palatine has nothing to do with Poland. It does not have much to do with you either. Your actual experience is graduating some crappy school in Moscow followed by a career in a dungeon with cheap Korean air con abusing people for money. Witness your previous contribution - turning a discussion about Polish schools into the normal stuff about gays and brown scum.

So the situation here is that teachers get less than someone working in Biedronka. If you had ever been here you would see Biedronkas on every street corner.

My comments about teachers' salaries in Palatine are meant to show that pay has nothing to do with quality because teachers are the least creative and most stupid liberal of all professions. Or on the way to be obsolete. Right now, elementary kids here spend most of their time looking at the screens, not teachers. I know because I have four granddaughters that age.

Do you think that it is a better use of taxpayers money to give it to pensioners and farmers subsidies with no obligations or to invest it in education ?

And however low opinion of teachers you have do you think they should earn less per hour than a supervisor at KFC ?

Of course the very least creative profession is being a professional troll, unless you count making up grandkids as creative.

Well screw them, polish teachers are utterly useless. (im sure its similar in other states as well)

We have almost universal Internet access now, almost everything can be self-learned if one is interested in learning it.

I remember my school years in Poland - dumbass teacher comes in, checks attendance, opens a book, starts to recite everything, only stopping to let use write down some "important details". most of them were like that and they dont deserve to be paid anything at all.

Ending up with autodidacts who swallow ideas in an unstructured way from weird websites.


Those who aren't are the ones who need education.


Clearly in your case it wasn't especially effective.

As an private English teacher I do have sympathy with main stream public school teachers. There has already been talk in this posting about the lack of creativity from teachers and I can say that like all teachers throughout the world, it is a necessity to be creative when planning lessons. It is fair to say that like any business there are good and not so good employees and this also applies to teachers. However be careful when judging teachers as I am sure there are many other professions/businesses who employ many no hopers and unproductive employees whose only objective is to work as little as possible for the salary their receive.

Not only is it necessary to plan and create lessons for students (often outside teaching hours and late into the night) that are stimulating but they need to carefully plan the delivery and timings of such lesson plans which can be difficult. In addition there is the added pressure of dealing with difficult and challenging children/students who so quickly make the lives of teachers stressful and are resistant to any form of encouragement or help offered. I am sure there are many more issues which are equally important and relevant to the current strike but unless you are a teacher it is really unrealistic to know how teachers feel and how difficult life can be when teaching. For teachers to earn as much as a KFC employee is obscene and a disgrace.

The public know that the teaching profession needs to employ the best teachers to ensure that students receive the best possible education to prepare them for life. It is right to say that there are good and not so good teachers. Perhaps increased regulation of teaching ability needs to be improved and new ideas, approaches adopted. In this way teachers can develop their skills further and add value to their current skills set. Money is not the sole solution to quality and improvement but teachers do deserve an increase in salary to bring them up to and exceed the salary of KFC employees...! At the end of the day teachers are the foundations on which a progressive society is based on and should be respected and rewarded where necessary. Like any business, teaching will positively progress if the right approach is used to develop and equip teachers with the right tools.

I only hope that my comments help to show some of the difficulties experienced by teachers.

I take it then that you're a Brit, Braveheart16.

Yes that's correct I am a Brit......

I don't know who you are, but I know enough to call you a genius on the basis of this post alone.
Spot on. We have the same problem here, in the US. These useless Marxist indoctrinators are now in the supervisory mode watching kids watching videos on their PC's.

Proof? Home schooled kids outscore the public school products every time a survey is done.
I detest home schooling for other reasons, but the tests don't lie.

Unfortunately, with a incredibly rigid "core programme" and a lack of hours to implement it, it's always going to be a struggle for teachers to be creative on top.

One of my colleagues suggests that a massive improvement in Poland would be to increase the amount of teaching hours by 25% while decreasing the amount of proscribed content by 25%, therefore allowing teachers the chance to actually be creative.