| SSTUWA Executive: Marko Vojkovic |
 I believe in a free and robust education for all. The strength of any system can be measured by how well it serves the disadvantaged in our society. The current trend in education is to move towards a market driven model of delivery. This will immediately create a two-tiered system and widen the socioeconomic divide. Whilst some individual schools may see advantages in becoming Independent Public schools, it is important that the SSTUWA takes the bigger picture into account.I have fought long and hard to preserve quality and equality of education in WA. I have taught at 5 metropolitan hard to staff schools and suffered the humiliation and uncertainty of being a temporary teacher for 8 years. The current system of employing teachers must be reviewed. Our employment conditions are amongst the worst in WA. They serve as a disincentive to high school leavers choosing teaching as a career and many teaching graduates leave after 3 or 4 years due to frustration. This situation must change and, if elected, I will make it a top priority. Violence against teachers is reaching crisis point. It is simply unacceptable that anybody should be forced to work in an unsafe workplace. It is also against the law. I hear of teachers too afraid to follow through on the OSH process for fear of losing their jobs. What sort of system have we created where fixed term teachers accept assault because they believe using the OSH laws will cause them to lose their jobs? This is a sad indictment on our Union’s ability to protect its members in the two most fundamental areas: job security and personal safety. This must change, but change will only happen when the leadership changes. Teacher workload is becoming a burden. The demands placed on us outside the classroom are increasing. NAPLAN, MSE, SIS, CAR, IEPs and curriculum change are eroding our preparation time and causing unnecessary stress. We must resist change for change sake. We must demand that any change be fully detailed before we start and accompanied by externally produced resources and time off to prepare. It is unfair that teachers shoulder the burden of generating programs and lesson plans for changes they did not ask for and do not want. Teachers must be left alone to teach. They should not be continually distracted by bureaucratic demands. Members First offer a new way forward. Teaching is caught in an industrial rut. It needs new ideas and new ways of solving problems. We need to shake off the defeatist attitude that permeates teaching where we are continually told to accept what we are offered because “it’s the best we can do.” Teachers proved in 2008 that we can do better if we reject fear. We do not accept bullying in our classrooms so why should we accept it in our workplace? This does not mean being more militant. That is the old way that does not work anymore. It means being more alert and proactive instead of reactive. It means negotiating from a position of strength. It means not being compromised by outdated allegiances. Education is entering a new phase. Accountability and cost-effectiveness are replacing social justice and equality. The old ways have no place in this brave new world. New people with new ideas of how to preserve the integrity of the state education system are needed if teachers are to retain their rightful place at the education table. Members First represent that way forward. |