The Education System is About To Crumble
I am a teacher in the UK. So when I tell you that the public education system in Britain is on a train set to crash straight into a mountain.
Now let me preface this by making everyone aware, I absolutely hate my job. There is absolutely no way I would recommend the teaching profession to anyone I know. The whole system is well and truly broken and, if allowed to continue, will have absolutely no one willing to teach no matter what the payrise.
The pay rise is what is constantly debated in the news. It is what all the headlines focus on to create the rhetoric that teachers are greedy and the villain. I never see any of my actual issues with teaching being spoken about. I have spent the last two years looking at other jobs both within education and within the private sector, so when I tell you I absolutely hate my job - believe me. Now many may wonder that if you've spent two years looking for a job, surely an experienced teacher can find one. I will admit I am being picky and that's because a) whilst I agree with the need for payrises, I can't seem to find a suitable job to match the salary, b) the holiday's genuinely keep me in the job - nowhere can match these and they give me the drive to survive and c) I have an 8 minute commute.
The more interesting reasons are why I want to leave. There are several and some of them overlap, the biggest reason is it is physically impossible to do a good job. It has given me an absolute disillusionment about the future. I am exhausted with the children, I genuinely have no hope for the future of our country because of what I have seen in school. I am also at the point where I realise nothing I do or say in the classroom will have any lasting impact on a child's life. Too much is completely out of a teacher's control that there is no possible way to complete your workload. The changes the current government plans to put into public schools will only further create problems for the future of our county.
Behaviour is one of the greatest challenges teachers actually face day after day. The amount of time I spend managing pupils behaviour is probably twice as much as I spend teaching - the brutal reality is we do not have the tools or systems in place to actually have control over the pupils in our schools. If a child wants to do something they are now of the mindset that they will do it regardless of whether the adult in the room has said anything to the contrary. Teacher's attention is immediately drawn to the poor behaviour and it has to be. But it has an immediate impact of every child in that room. They are missing two thirds of their time and their education because of behavioural issues that they equally have no control over.
SEND needs in main stream schools, isn't the issue. SEND needs are perfectly manageable in a properly funded education system, but in the current state cannot be handled. I had an LSA with one of my classes for the first term. Within that first term the class were near perfect, as soon as the LSA was taken to a different class they descended into apathy. Here the LSA was attached to a child in the class, this child moved classes and so did my LSA. But I had seven other SEND pupils in the class. These kids went from having two adults in the room and were excelling to one and have flatlined. It takes me far longer to interven because I now have more pupils to help. I can't physically be another person. I've also seen cases where pupils couldn't be moved to higer classes because their were multiple EHCP's in their current class and only one LSA to all three. The current financial pressures means schools are forced to limit pupils potential because of the needs of their EHCP's. Lumping all pupils into one group just because schools cannot afford is not something teachers have control over. The needs and adaptations within the classes can also clash simply because we must fill all classes and reduce sets to afford to run. One child might need a quiet relaxed atmosphere and tone, another may need a firmer tone of voice or even exercise and movement breaks. It is physically impossible to without separating those children. The class sizes and lack of funding for LSA's is the real issue - not keeping SEND pupils in mainstream education.
The most important factor in a child's education is their parents. The vast majority of issues pupils have with their education is down to where they come from. Everyday I see pupils who challenge this representation but unfortunately this is a special few. I once read that if a child hasn't learnt to read by aged four, the damage to their educational outcomes is irreperable. What is the point in teaching if damage is already done before they have even had any formal education? Those who at home are encouraged and taught will do well. When parent's tell their child to respect the teacher - they do. The amount of parents who complain like teaching is a customer service is wild and thus a generation of children with no respect for the word no. It was enough of a battle to get children to comply with simple requests when I first started teaching, now with the defence of their parents, the sense of entitlement has surged. The sense of self importance and self righteousness has surged and the majority of pupils will not comply or push themselves any further than the average. It is no suprise that the newest generation are statistically the first generation to be less intelligent than it's predecessor. If all teaching has to be done at school they build a resistance to that an apathy. Whilst behaviour can be an issue, apathy is also an issue. If the teacher doesn't tell me to I won't do it. If they're not marking it then there's no point in any effort. Instead of seeing the gift of your education as reason enough to complete it to the best of your ability.
The final reason is the amount we are expected to be in early or stay late or work outside of hours when the reasons are an absolute waste of time. I am sick and tired of being told to stay late for this garbage meeting, be in early for this stupid session. I would not mind if these were contracted hours. If I knew I was being paid for the time I would gladly stay. However we are not, that knowledge alone, the knowledge that this is my free time grates on me in unimaginable ways. A job is a job. I am there to be paid and no other reason. I am very self aware that if I did not need to work to survive, I would not. I am very content to be doing my own thing and puttering about. So to me whatever is in the school calendar is in the school calendar. If it is not in my paid directed time then I do not wish to do it. I also hate being told to do something that cannot be done within school hours. I have five free's a fortnight. If it cannot be done in those five hours it cannot be done. The expectation that we should put in our own hours 'for the kids' is absurd and not expected in other professions or in other countries. All of this leads to a working life where you are consistently looking at your to-do list and going I can't achieve all this what can I cut?
We are constantly being told who to target and what child is more important and we are done in.
The most important children in the room are the ones who want to do well. They deserve our attention and they are consistently overlooked. Teaching has also made me decide that I never want children. I cannot see any future for a child I have. Essentially any child in the current education system who is not SEND or disadvantaged is going to spend their entire educational career over looked. The stupididty of this is that the rest are the majority. We are overlooking the majority - which means a future workforce is going to be mediocre. Is going to have a harder time getting a job. Will have a harder time achieving the salary we have. Which is already not enough for the cost of living crisis. So what is the point in creating a life that will be overlooked it's whole life and find adult life even harder than we are. I can't morally justify it - let alone afford it. I'm not the only one to think like this about children - as we can see from the declining birth rate. A number of my friends are choosing not to have children and they all come from the majority background that would make a future generation that could have a positive impact. Instead the population is stagnating.
So for nowI am a teacher. I hate my job and I think that education has at most fifty years in it's current format. It has to change. I reckon I've got five years of teaching left in me. By then I have to have found a new job.












