Today it was reported that Michael Gove announced that from September 2015, schools could be given the freedom to decide their own school holidays.
In principal, this is perhaps not such a daft idea.
On paper.
In reality, this is likely to cause complete chaos to an awful lot of the population - be them parents or teachers, or [shock, horror] a teacher who is also a parent!
The 6 weeks holiday argument has raged for years and will keep going forever, I am sure. And I am both for and against the idea but, in my most humble opinion, the pros do outweigh the cons - and that's coming from someone who is already worrying about what to do with my job when my little boy starts school in 3 years time.
Let's say that everything goes ahead with Mr Gove's plan and schools decide to fix their own holidays. What could happen?
- two siblings at different schools with different holiday times. Neither will release the child for a family holiday in term time. So parents could now be restricted to only 2 or 3 weeks in the summer when they could take their holiday. Boo hoo you might say, but how flexible is YOUR office/workplace with holidays? 'Not very' is usually the answer. So, what happens when a large percentage of your workforce needs the same 2 or 3 weeks off in the summer? Think about places like supermarkets and other retail stores - where the majority of their staff are part-time and have a family. How will that work?
- holiday companies currently like to inflate their rates from mid-July to early September. But what if summer breaks started earlier at some schools and ended later in others? HOORAY and KERRRR-CHINGG! for the tourism industry. They can now over-inflate their prices for maybe 10 weeks rather than the paltry 6 . Think about it...all those smug, childless couples (of which I was one for years) and pensioners will also now have to pay a small fortune to sit on an overcrowded beach surrounded by kiddiwinkies too if they dare to want a holiday between June and October!
- then there is the childcare issue. Yes, it is everybody's individual choice to have a child. So it is everyone's individual responsibility to arrange and pay for our of school childcare. Fine when everyone has the same holiday time - give or take a few days - and holiday clubs can run and childminders know when they have spaces. But what happens when this period is extended by a couple of weeks at either end? This will affect the premises they can rent for their clubs - most use school facilities. The infrastructure has been in place, and building, for a number of years to help families during the school holidays and now Mr Gove would like to make it more difficult yet again.
- I thought this government wanted to get people back to work wherever possible? They are already losing out on millions of women's earning potential because of childcare restrictions So why are they now trying to make it even more difficult? This could actually force one parent out of the workforce.
- Teachers who are parents. Where does this leave them? Their school closes at a different time to their offspring's. Will the government suddenly give them the flexibility to take their holiday during termtime to cover it? Nope, thought not.
And that is not even getting into the 'touchy feely' list of reasons why the straight 6 week holiday should stay.
Children should be allowed to be children for at least a few years. Society has been trying to make children grow older beyond their years for a while now and it's ridiculous. Children need to play in order to grow and learn. Trying to turn us all into Tiger Mums and making them sit in a regimented fashion and learn for longer hours will not produce a balanced cross section of society.
And teachers. What about them? Most of my teaching friends spend evenings planning lessons and marking work and writing reports and making wallcharts and decorating their classrooms and trying to meet government targets and.. and... and... the list goes on. yes, they may well finish teaching at 3.30pm but they don't just 'clock off'. And they can't just 'chuck a sickie' when they feel like it. Or bugger off for a long weekend if they feel like it - unlike a lot of the population.
Most of my friends are usually back in the classroom in the final week of the summer holidays making the necessary preparations for the new term. A lot of them spend the first week of the holidays in the classroom too - taking down the decorations and work displays.
Mr Gove probably went to a private school like a lot of his government peers and actually I don't have an issue with that. Each to their own, live and let live and all that. Personally, I would rather have educated people leading the country rather than a white-van-man with a CSE* in Technical Drawing trying to decide economic policy. What I object to, are these educated people not having a sense of perspective; not having any idea of how most of the population have to live. That's what irks me.
[*showing my age here. Most people reading this probably won't have a clue what a CSE is and think I have just made a typing error]
For someone who usually does vote Tory (don't hate me, please!) I am hoping that either Gove gets ousted in favour of someone a little more savvy, or that the opposition gets in and cancels these plans. I won't hold my breath though, so far the Labour party haven't shown any signs of withdrawing most of the Tory plans and cuts.
Hey ho.
About Me
- Shortlass
- A first time mum at 39, trying not to let my son kill me off too soon. Busy juggling a new family, a new house and a tricky recording schedule I figured blogging would be less expensive than therapy and less embarrassing than shouting at rude and stupid people in the street/on trains/at the supermarket.
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Friday, 2 December 2011
We're all in it together
I've had some real conscience wrestling these last few days assisted by a lot of tongue biting.
Wednesday brought a massive Public Sector workers strike and I have real mixed feelings about this (including a lot of anger) particularly as i have a lot of friends who are teachers and civil servants. For those of you have been living in your shed without a TV for the last year, the country (and most of the world) is in pretty deep doo-doo financially and some pretty drastic cuts have got to be made to stop us from turning into a crap version of Greece * . Consequently the government have introduced some pretty unpopular cuts to services and changes in policy to try to reduce the deficit.
* At least Greece has good weather and beaches for when you're really depressed.
The most recent one has been a change in pensions for all Public Sector workers. Now the big point that everyone seems to be missing is that Public Sector Pensions (and the State Pension come to that) should have been reformed years ago to take into account the fact that people simply live longer than they used to. In 1926 when State Pensions were introduced the average life expectancy was 76 for men and 78 for women, in 2008 those figures were closer to 86 and 89 respectively. So there is an extra 10 years of pension cash to be found per person in the UK and yet until recently there had been almost no real move to increase the age at which these pensioners could start receiving their cash.
Anyone who can do simple adding and subtraction knows that this kind of commitment cannot be sustained indefinitely. Unfortunately the world financial crisis has elevated the pension timebomb profile and the government have no option but to address it and try to sort something out. They have already brought in plans to raise retirement age for the State Pension and now they are making changes to the Public Sector and it's not going down well.
I agree that the measures seem unfair and it would be a pretty poor argument if all I did was bleat on about the private sector being stamped on for years with dismal payrises, long hours and diminishing pensions to show for it, so I won't. Instead, let's think about a few other points.
1) No public sector worker will lose any money they have already invested in their pensions.
2) Public sector pensions will be 'defined benefit' ie: linked to pay and not on the amount saved or invested. So why is that bad?
3) Private sector workers must be responsible for the investment into their pensions, so why should they also be predominantly responsible for the investment into public sector workers pensions too?
Forgive me for being cynical but, generally, Governments tend to focus on keeping themselves in power for as long as possible and traditionally they like to make themselves pretty popular. So why are the Tories seemingly making themselves as unpopular as rabid dog at a teddy bears picnic? Could it be because they've explored all the popular options and realised they don't work? Could it be that there really are very few alternatives left (if any) and so drastic times call for drastic measures?
Even Husb who would sooner cut off his hands than be accused of being a Tory is shouting at the telly when some of the half-wits that the media choose to interview at times like this bang on about everything being 'not fair' and 'I'm entitled!' etc etc ad boredinium....[yes I did just make that word up].
The simple facts remain that we are not in a good place and we're all in it together so whilst you teachers are worried about your diminishing pension, so are we; you guys are worrying about future redundancies and job security and so are we. Times are rubbish but if we all start taking some responsibility then maybe we can get through it. Our parents and grandparents didn't exactly have it easy but they managed. They survived wars, rationing, general strikes and some positively dreadful fashion statements. They had to work out how to stretch a ridiculously small amount of food just that bit further and mend clothes rather than buy news ones yet most of us mainly have to make sure we don't overstretch our finances just in case something hits us – so, no new flat screen TVs, no amazing foreign holidays, making sure the kids have new shoes rather than £100 fashion trainers. You get the idea. I know I could easily knock a good £10 off my weekly food shop without trying too hard. And yes, I am aware that I am one of the relatively lucky ones and there are a lot of others who have to cut it down a lot more than that and have a lot less income to start with.
Incidentally, if anyone has any ideas that the Tories haven't thought of yet then please do share them. The only ones I can think of would probably be even more unpopular...
- Income tax rises
- VAT rises
- Council tax rises
- Fuel duty rises?
And before someone tries to bang on about Bankers and the mega rich and so on, yes ladies and gents, there will also be the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. It's the way of the world and always has been. Some will have inherited, some will have got lucky on the lottery, some will have got theirs from their golden boots or golden tonsils and some will just be thieving greedy bastards. It's not always necessarily fair , but in a lot of cases the 'haves' have built up their fortunes through hard work and sacrifice. Do you begrudge them their money too? You know as well as I do that if it were you (or me) who had the millions stashed away then you would enjoy it as much as those guys do.
We can't base all our decisions on what someone else does or someone else has. At some point in all our lives we have to just take some responsibility for ourselves and look out for those who can't look out for themselves. I don't have all the answers and if I did, would I want the Prime Minister's job? Would I heck.
Wednesday brought a massive Public Sector workers strike and I have real mixed feelings about this (including a lot of anger) particularly as i have a lot of friends who are teachers and civil servants. For those of you have been living in your shed without a TV for the last year, the country (and most of the world) is in pretty deep doo-doo financially and some pretty drastic cuts have got to be made to stop us from turning into a crap version of Greece * . Consequently the government have introduced some pretty unpopular cuts to services and changes in policy to try to reduce the deficit.
* At least Greece has good weather and beaches for when you're really depressed.
The most recent one has been a change in pensions for all Public Sector workers. Now the big point that everyone seems to be missing is that Public Sector Pensions (and the State Pension come to that) should have been reformed years ago to take into account the fact that people simply live longer than they used to. In 1926 when State Pensions were introduced the average life expectancy was 76 for men and 78 for women, in 2008 those figures were closer to 86 and 89 respectively. So there is an extra 10 years of pension cash to be found per person in the UK and yet until recently there had been almost no real move to increase the age at which these pensioners could start receiving their cash.
Anyone who can do simple adding and subtraction knows that this kind of commitment cannot be sustained indefinitely. Unfortunately the world financial crisis has elevated the pension timebomb profile and the government have no option but to address it and try to sort something out. They have already brought in plans to raise retirement age for the State Pension and now they are making changes to the Public Sector and it's not going down well.
I agree that the measures seem unfair and it would be a pretty poor argument if all I did was bleat on about the private sector being stamped on for years with dismal payrises, long hours and diminishing pensions to show for it, so I won't. Instead, let's think about a few other points.
1) No public sector worker will lose any money they have already invested in their pensions.
2) Public sector pensions will be 'defined benefit' ie: linked to pay and not on the amount saved or invested. So why is that bad?
3) Private sector workers must be responsible for the investment into their pensions, so why should they also be predominantly responsible for the investment into public sector workers pensions too?
Forgive me for being cynical but, generally, Governments tend to focus on keeping themselves in power for as long as possible and traditionally they like to make themselves pretty popular. So why are the Tories seemingly making themselves as unpopular as rabid dog at a teddy bears picnic? Could it be because they've explored all the popular options and realised they don't work? Could it be that there really are very few alternatives left (if any) and so drastic times call for drastic measures?
Even Husb who would sooner cut off his hands than be accused of being a Tory is shouting at the telly when some of the half-wits that the media choose to interview at times like this bang on about everything being 'not fair' and 'I'm entitled!' etc etc ad boredinium....[yes I did just make that word up].
The simple facts remain that we are not in a good place and we're all in it together so whilst you teachers are worried about your diminishing pension, so are we; you guys are worrying about future redundancies and job security and so are we. Times are rubbish but if we all start taking some responsibility then maybe we can get through it. Our parents and grandparents didn't exactly have it easy but they managed. They survived wars, rationing, general strikes and some positively dreadful fashion statements. They had to work out how to stretch a ridiculously small amount of food just that bit further and mend clothes rather than buy news ones yet most of us mainly have to make sure we don't overstretch our finances just in case something hits us – so, no new flat screen TVs, no amazing foreign holidays, making sure the kids have new shoes rather than £100 fashion trainers. You get the idea. I know I could easily knock a good £10 off my weekly food shop without trying too hard. And yes, I am aware that I am one of the relatively lucky ones and there are a lot of others who have to cut it down a lot more than that and have a lot less income to start with.
Incidentally, if anyone has any ideas that the Tories haven't thought of yet then please do share them. The only ones I can think of would probably be even more unpopular...
- Income tax rises
- VAT rises
- Council tax rises
- Fuel duty rises?
And before someone tries to bang on about Bankers and the mega rich and so on, yes ladies and gents, there will also be the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. It's the way of the world and always has been. Some will have inherited, some will have got lucky on the lottery, some will have got theirs from their golden boots or golden tonsils and some will just be thieving greedy bastards. It's not always necessarily fair , but in a lot of cases the 'haves' have built up their fortunes through hard work and sacrifice. Do you begrudge them their money too? You know as well as I do that if it were you (or me) who had the millions stashed away then you would enjoy it as much as those guys do.
We can't base all our decisions on what someone else does or someone else has. At some point in all our lives we have to just take some responsibility for ourselves and look out for those who can't look out for themselves. I don't have all the answers and if I did, would I want the Prime Minister's job? Would I heck.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)