Teachers’ unions try to set the rules in school
Unprofessional to refuse exams, not enter marks
Ottawa’s secondary school teachers don’t understand the most basic fact of the workplace. They are employees. They don’t run the system.
As part of what the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation calls “sanctions,” some year-end exams are being cancelled. Some Grade 9 standardized math tests will not be administered.
These are not just strike tactics. This is the union unilaterally changing the way our schools are run. The fact that these two particular actions have been taken is significant.
As the local union president told the Citizen, many teachers don’t agree with having both a year-end exam and a year-end project. Ottawa’s board is unusual in requiring its students to do more than one thing.
Not to say that being asked to do more is a bad thing for students, but apparently it’s a bad thing for teachers. Local union president Dan Maxwell cites “the workload at the end of the year,” and the rush that creates in getting marks in on time. The union has told teachers it’s OK to drop final exams.
Ontario teaching unions have also fought standardized tests from the beginning, even though the results provide the only real information parents and the public have about our children’s success in mastering the basics of math, reading and writing.
Teachers have made the dubious argument that the tests take up too much time, although the real issue is that the results highlight some pretty broad deficiencies in teaching.
The failure to administer tests or exams because some teachers don’t like them or they are too much work is the kind of thing that would get you fired in an ordinary job. Having these actions approved by the union doesn’t make them acceptable.
Some of the union’s local tactics are childish, others are odious. Teachers will not enter final grades in the school data system but will force administrators to do the work. Very professional. Worse, teachers will no longer fill out reports identifying students who are struggling and need special help.
How can teachers conduct themselves like this and expect students or the public to have any respect for them?
The issues of who’s in charge and how hard teachers have to work are emerging as the major questions in the provincewide teacher unrest.
Elementary teachers don’t want their bosses telling them what to do during preparation time, and they want to choose what diagnostic tests to administer. Both elementary and secondary teachers oppose having to spend more time supervising students over lunch or in the yard. Secondary school teachers reject a proposal that would give school administrators more flexibility on deciding class size. The unions are also battling to keep an idiotic rule that applies waiting-list seniority to hiring.
Teaching unions have gained so much political power in recent years that they now think it’s their job to run the schools. It’s not. To the extent that parents and the public have any say in education in Ontario, it’s through their elected representatives. Someone needs to be accountable for our schools, and it can’t be the employees and their unions.
On the issue of workload, teachers need to understand that higher pay usually requires higher productivity. Top-level secondary school teachers make more than $90,000 for a job that has rather light burdens in the warmer months. Asking them to do a bit more is not unreasonable.
The big picture is that the cost of education in Ontario has risen steadily while the number of students has declined. This is driven primarily by paying teachers more money to do less work. The deficit-ridden provincial government just can’t afford to keep taking that approach.
Money is important, but control is even more important. We can’t let teachers do whatever they like on the job, with no accountability to their bosses or anyone else.
Our MPPs and school trustees need to take a strong stand on the issue of who’s in charge. That’s their job. Anyone have the courage to speak up?