The Nanny State Schools.

The public sector strikes are on the horizon again with little chance of being resolved by Wednesday.

The public sector workers have been losing support as time has gone on; largely thanks to the government’s unfair analysis of them. They claim the public sector are being irresponsible by striking when talks are still on-going. The thing is the talks haven’t moved in months.

Striking is the only right workers in Britain have left and they wouldn’t be doing it if they didn’t feel so strongly about the unfairness of the reform. It’s not a case of total disagreement; it’s about the severity of cuts and the devaluation of their roles.

Now it appears they might even be losing that right as Francis Maude has said if the public sector is to strike, then legislation will have to be brought in to stop it from happening. There’s even been disgraceful stories of bullying tactics inside schools forcing teachers not to strike.

According to Maude the strike isn’t legitimate seeing as only 31% of the union members actually voted. Does this mean the current government is illegitimate then? Only 65% of Britain voted in the last general election. 63.9% of them didn’t vote Tory. See I can spin numbers too.

This government seems to have a sinister policy when it comes to demonstrators. If students protest they’re labelled anarchists out to cause trouble, putting them on the same pedestal as the rioters when in truth they’re protesting against the huge inequalities in the education sector.

The students have been completely demonised to the point where they have no support outside of their own unions, which is quite an achievement considering how much the changes affect everyone in the entire country; I’m looking at you parents of children under the age of 17.

Now it’s the public sector worker’s turn to be demonised, and I’m getting fed up with it. Depicted as leeches and parasites by the government’s rhetoric, more and more people, especially in the private sector, are condemning them for striking saying they should take the hit like everyone else.

That’s fine and all, but they’re largely paid a complete pittance (I say largely because of course MPs and councillors are public sector workers).

Take teachers for example, they’re paid on average 20-30k a year, not 37k as Tories would have you believe. Some Tories have been pointing out that teachers and nurses would benefit more from the new reform and that striking is irresponsible. Sorry, but where is that evidence? The last time I checked people generally don’t strike when they are to benefit! Anyone who believes that stuff needs their mental health checking.

Regardless of whether you agree with the strikes or not, my next point is the most important point to make regarding teachers.

Louise Mensch said last week on Twitter:

“Course, it mostly penalises working Mums. How do unions justify school strikes when teacher retiring on £37k gets £25k now vs £19k before?”

Obviously she’s distorted the figures heavily but that’s not my point.

This tweet prompted people to reply condemning the strikes. Here’s a good one from a Twitter user:

“exactly. Who is going to look after my child next week while they strike? I will have to take unpaid leave as most will!”

For crying out loud, teachers are not child-minders! For some reason beyond my comprehension of belief, teachers have been devalued to the point where they are nothing but child-minders; there to take the kids off parents for 6-7 hours a day while they can go to work or watch Jeremy Kyle in peace.

Teachers provide a service in this country. Quite a big one by the way. They EDUCATE our future; they’re not there to provide crèche facilities. Without education we might as well just go into the foetal position now and be done with it. They’re worth far more than they’re paid, but as we all know they’re not doing it for the money.

When they take on the job they’re told that their pay may be bad, but they’ll be rewarded in the end when they retire. That rug has been firmly swept from under them. If these proposals do go through, without any negotiation then education will take a massive hit, even greater than the growing inequality of university education.

We won’t be able to attract the best candidates into teaching if they’re being offered no incentive at all. Why put yourself through the stress of teaching for no reward when there are other professions out their offering less stress and more money. We’re already struggling to attract them into the profession with a lot of secondary school teachers able to attain a PGCE on the back of poor qualifications with little to no experience. We’re letting our kids down.

But the government doesn’t care about the quality of teachers; all it wants them to do is child-mind and accept the relevant pay for doing so. Some, like the actual education secretary Michael Gove, have even suggested parents and members of the community go into schools to teach the kids. I don’t think you can become more devalued than that. In ten years’ time teaching won’t require a qualification, anyone will be able to do it, and they probably won’t even need to be CRB checked. We might as well get young offenders doing it as part of their community service while we’re at it.

I just don’t understand the government’s contradictory rhetoric. One minute they’re scaremongering, claiming the strikes will cost the economy £500 million meaning jobs in the public and private sectors will be lost and Paddington Bear will need to be strangled; the next minute they’re saying the public sector aren’t that useful really and Wednesday won’t affect anybody.

However you feel about the strikes, can we all please accept that the public sector workers are not leeches and provide a service to the country. Teachers are not child-minders (I really can’t stress this point enough), nurses have been found to be quite useful, and without the civil service the country would grind to a painful halt.

Stop demonising them general public; you’re all acting like Tories, and last time I checked only 36.1% of you actually are.