I think that this rant deserves a post all by itself. As I have said before I am a teacher in the public school system and as such have been told that the system costs too much and that we must do more with less, that we must find creative solutions. There is no money. So our students work on old beat up computers that have been donated and don't work half the time. There is no money... we are trying to find the $25000 it would cost to equipe a new computer lab but it is going to take some kind of miraculous finances to accomplish this. What services will we cut to do it?
In the mean time, our elected commisioners of the school board have voted themselves $65000 worth of new P5 laptop computers ($48000 for computers and $17000 for IT support such as WIFI and broadband internet at home). The students are using recycled computers and they are spending the equivalent of two new computer labs to "save paper and mailing costs". (But let's be fair, in fours years when they are obsolete, they'll be changed and the old ones then given to the schools... how's that for generous. )
We are always being told that there is no money, that we must cut costs. I just wonder sometimes what percentage of the billions in the education budget is really spent DIRECTLY on the students. (By directly I mean, money that goes into the classes, that the students profit from, either in equipement or direct services) I would not be surprised if it was less than 1%. Since the students are at the end of the line there isn't much left when everyone above have taken their slice. Then society wonders why so many students drop out and don't finish high school. The budget should be reversed... the students get what they need and whatever is left over can be used for other things. Gee what an inovative thought, the education budget actually being used for the education of students.
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And today the governement announced they'll be hiring new teachers - but they won't need a teaching degree...
Just goes to show how many people are lining up to spend four years (versus 3 for an engineer) to become a teacher. The system is crazy, there isn't anyone left on the "liste de rappelle", math and sciences are completely empty as is ESL. They can't even fill the permanent positions. So now they'll take anyone who can stand in front of a class. Used to be that if you had bachelors degree in a subject (such as math, science, history ettc) you could do a teaching certificate (1 year or 30 credits) and then teach. But that changed about 4-5 years ago, now you have to do a whole new bachelors degree (4 years) in education. They've only just realized that people don't want to spend an extra four years studying to do a low prestige job like teaching. OOOppps didn't think of that, so now with all the teachers retiring they're in trouble, so we'll get a whole sh*t load of "If you can't do anything useful, you teach" Boy that will do wonders for the profession, for the kids. No wonder so many teachers are getting out. Something like 40% don't get past five years.But yeah the ministry says everything is just fine... *LOL cynically*
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