Our thanks to Nigel for this. He writes:
“I despair. Not only four day week for schools but a 32 hour week for the same pay as a five day week. A profession steadily becomes female dominated and stage by stage it becomes less and less productive. As we can see in GP services where part time work is practically the norm.
In education we’ll see even more inconsistent education as they “cover” and have supply teachers filling in as teachers enjoy a pay rise with less actual work and better “work life balance”. Add in the huge army of teaching assistants etc. which simply didn’t exist 20 years ago and yet another public service is run for the convenience of its workers rather than the people who its supposed to serve, in this case pupils and their education.
As it is many teachers are part time and schools do accommodate request for part time work. At least they don’t have to pay full time salaries. All this at a time when the nation desperately needs to get real and up its productivity to climb out of debt and stagnation.”
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