6th December 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
I drove up to Manchester to train an assessor last week, which went well. The only problem was how tired the driving made me before the training, for which I really have to be on the ball and concentrating. Very glad to have done it though, and hopefully we’ll soon have lots more tutors and students in the Manchester area.
It was interesting to see the teaching strikes last week. To be honest, I’m not totally sure how I feel about them. For a long time I’ve felt that the government offers very little incentive for graduates to go into education, because the wages are so low compared to the salaries our top academics can get elsewhere. However, this is my argument for how to increase the quality of teachers in our schools, it doesn’t mean that I think existing teachers should necessarily be paid more (although of course some should). The thing that grates a little with me is that when so many people around the country are accepting that times are tough financially, there is no empathy from some people employed in the public sector. I suspect that many tutors who are finding it difficult to command the same tuition fees, or the same number of hours as they have in the past, are very unimpressed with the actions of teachers who have guaranteed careers through a recession.