From a story by Nick Martin in last Friday’s Freep:
MANITOBA’S average teacher is working more than 50 hours a week — barely half that workload spent in a classroom, Manitoba Teachers’ Society president Pat Isaak said Thursday.The workload survey that MTS conducts every two years shows that the 3,300 teachers who responded say they work just over 50 hours a week, with one-quarter saying their workload exceeds 57 hours, Isaak said.
Wow, that sounds like the same workload as just about everyone else I know. Of course, most people don’t get the two weeks off at Christmas or the eight weeks off in the summer. In fact, 50 hours/week during the school year averaged over an entire year works out to around 40 hours/week.
So in summary, teachers are paid fairly for an average 40-hour week, while the rest of us are overworked 52 weeks of the year. Where is the news here?
Filed under: Winnipeg Free Press | Tagged: manitoba teachers society, Winnipeg Free Press
Amen to this.
I also have concerns about self-reported work statistics. I can declare that I work 56 hours per week, does that make it true?
Very good point.
Actually, teachers get 3 weeks of paid holidays, 2 weeks at Christmas and 1 week at spring break. The 8 weeks of summer is unpaid leave. Teachers also don’t get to collect unemployment for this time (fair enough). Our salaries are for a 10 month term of employment. It should be pointed out, however, that teaching assistants, who are also on unpaid leave, and who do have a job to return to in the fall, do get to collect unemployment.
S,
While that may be technically correct, I believe most people would agree that teachers are paid a “full year’s salary” for their ten months of work. And to be clear, I’m not knocking teachers’ salaries, as I think they are paid fairly, but I did think the spin from the union was laughable in light of the realities of the modern work world.
I also don’t think that teaching assistants should be able to collect EI in this manner. The same goes for fishermen and other seasonal workers that have jobs to return to when the season resumes.
As a former public school teacher I have become very apathetic toward public education. Standards are at an all-time low. Students today can’t do nearly as much as students in the 80s. Yet the “educational” experts are trying to tell us that eudcation is fine and dandy. Believe me, public education is a huge mess and no one seems to care to try and change this culture of underachievers.