Teachers and Tutors refusing to go back into the classroom shouldn’t be paid for their time off; time to get tough and put them back in their places.
Teachers and tutors’ reputation has taken a substantial hit since the Covid-19 response started in March 2020. Despite all the evidence of almost zero risks, they have chosen to take every opportunity to avoid entering the classroom. Teachers seem to be intent on cherry-picking every negative piece of data, taking it out of context and trying to use it to defend their unsustainable positions. By playing politics, the Teaching profession should be ashamed of themselves for putting their pupil’s mental health at risk.
Teachers Unions Causing Trouble
As of February 2021, several major studies have listed the damaging effects that lockdowns and school closures have on students. None of these concerns has been acknowledged by any of the teaching unions. Instead, they opt for the terrifying visual effects of extreme PPE and social distancing in a vain attempt to reach a state of “zero-risk”.
Unions must know that an environment of zero risks from viruses and colds is impossible to achieve; it may not even be desirable. When they say they want to go back to the classroom, they are negotiating in bad faith. Their credibility should be questioned, as well as their honesty. They just don’t want to go back – ever! They want to be paid to sit at home and teach. According to some news reports, some are even finding that too dangerous. One UK secondary school teacher is reported to have demanded a day of absence from teaching across the internet because it was snowing outside.
What can be done?
The answer is so simple, stop paying them. What are they going to do, go on strike? How would anyone know the difference?
The Government is the defender of the public purse; it has a duty to get value for money. Why should it enforce work for pay rules against nurses but not for teachers? Nurses are at a far higher risk when it comes to the transmission of viruses.
Within one month of them ceasing to be paid, all the students would be back in the classroom. These teachers would soon realise that the survival rate of starvation far outweighs that of any virus.