A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER: WHY NOT?
"I am a private school teacher. Will I transfer to a public school and do public service?"
I recently read a post from a private school teacher who has been balancing his thoughts about transferring to a public school. Most comments from the post were merely based on idealism over realism.
Ideals that speak regularity and security; realism that denotes negativity and unsatisfaction.
But which preferences will you choose?
Idealism or realism?
Public school teachers are noted to be as regular and permanent in the government service; hence, teaching in public is branded as a stable and secured job. Public teachers also have bonuses and benefits that are not given in the private sector.
But will these compensate to the real situation in the public service especially teaching in a public school?
Being a public school teacher, decent pay is not decent after all. Even if you are wise at saving and budgeting, the salary of public school teachers is not enough to feed mouths, to shelter bodies, to warm bloods, and to recreate happiness. An average of twenty to thirty thousand per month in a small family with basic physiological and social needs is not enough.
Living a simple life is no cure at all. People work not just to sustain a simple routine. If that is the premise, therefore public school teachers work only in order to survive every day. Only hypocrites brag they are satisfied with their so-called decent salary but the truth of the matter is teachers die buying the cheapest coffins.
Why is a public school teacher salary not enough to another view point?
Public school teachers also work and get paid to spend for their work needs. That includes spending for classroom needs and instructional materials. Facing reality, the supplies given from MOOE budget for work-related materials is not enough for public school teachers if we average it on a daily basis. To produce instructional materials, especially printed activities and other materials which the students could not provide for themselves, is simply a hole in the pocket.
Furthermore, teachers too spend for their students' needs. There are these children who lack school supplies. Some have no food to eat during snack and lunch time, or even fare from going back to their home.
Some students need support from their academic and extra-curricular activities as well from which a teacher has to spend not just money but time and effort for these students to grow and gain their achievements.
What more is unhealthy in public service?
The workload seems heavier even in their alleged paperless system. Paperless is paperful. There are so many side reports that need to be obtained in a day. Failure to submit reports will be a point against your performance.
Clerical works have been amassed in public school. Imagine a caricature of a teacher carrying her students at the back and being burdened more with papers and reports. This fiasco has been the plight of teachers before. It is worsening and has been taken for granted by people who are sitting at the top. They will never feel the exhaustion a teacher experiences in a day. Their airconditioned offices are too cold for them to feel the heat of the real public environment. How many brilliant heads had sat down but had done nothing to enliven a teacher's life?
Moreover, these gargantuan workloads lead to an unhealthy and toxic environment. Teachers are getting physically sick, emotionally stressed and mentally drained.
To top that, there are these teachers who had been diagnosed and hospitalized due to stress. Some fell to depression and ended their lives. To think teachers are the individuals who are psychologically aware of the standards but fail to understand it because of an unhealty working routine.
The good thing about clerical work though is public school teachers are now the best statistician in the community.
Lastly, the best and the worst part of realism goes to the system.
A system that is pushing public school teachers to go beyond thier limits for a grade they need to achieve. Salary and bonuses depend on the grade and proficiency of which the system rules over.
When a community has a system lead by biases and misjudgment, it simply mocks the efforts and the truth.
"If you do not like the system, go out of the sytsem." Have you heard it once already? It is the truth and it will never be washed away from the public education sector.
Survival in public school is to believe in the system. Go with the system. Be the system.
These are the factors that are commonly tagged in public school teaching that are very old school but are recent and still ongoing. Perhaps, it is an epidemic that has not been resolved for decades.
Public school teachers may have the most notable profession but also the most unattended and unfavored one.
- But still i chose to teach and embrace the challenge.