It doesn’t add up

Union member for 50 years and secondary school teacher Larry Grumley (above) crunches the numbers on the workload crisis in our schools.

Over the past month, many of you may have been asked to complete a NSW Department of Education survey called “Tell them from me”.

Here is one of the statements in the annual survey: “Students receive written feedback on their work once every week.” The options for responding were: Strongly disagree; Disagree; Neither agree nor disagree; Agree; Strongly agree.

Schools are inundating us with data, so let’s look at the data from the above question, the very real implications of it, and the underlying assumption about quality teaching.

I’m one of the quickest HSC markers (always in the top five) so I’ll use myself as a test subject: as an older, experienced marker, I would be faster than newer, less experienced staff.

Worked example

Let’s step through what it takes to provide written feedback to every student at least once a week:

• I just marked a paragraph for Year 9 – it took 4 minutes with comments.

• There are 30 students in my Year 9 class – thus 4 minutes times 30 students equals 120 minutes (or 2 hours) per class

• Each classroom teacher in my department has 6 classes: 6 classes (30 students in each) at 120 minutes per week equals 720 minutes per week (or 12 hours).

• Link these 12 hours to an average school day of 8.30am to 3.30pm, but which is almost always longer due to meetings and other administration.

• If we divide the 12 hours by 5 weekdays, we add 2 hours and 24 minutes to each day, so it then becomes 8:30am to 5:54pm (let’s round up to 6pm).

So our first-year-out teacher leaves home at 8am, gets home after 6pm – and has done nothing but teach classes and mark just one piece of work for each student. There’s no time for planning, to think of new ways to teach or, heaven forbid, to have any work/life balance.

And this is based on me, a fast reader and experienced marker, and on only one paragraph – not a four-to-five page response expected of students in Years 11 and 12.

We need to look at time as our most precious commodity – time for family, for friends and for ourselves. Teachers need time for a life outside of school.

Burnout blues

Now, let’s add to the above nine-hour day all the other meetings and activities: special provisions; debating and public speaking; religious instruction; sport; alternative tasks; references; homerooms and house groups and we all know what it feels like. Exhaustion.

Most full-time teachers are lucky to have one period a day not in class. By the time a teacher moves from the classroom to their desk, five minutes is gone. Heaven forbid having to use the amenities – there goes another five minutes of that precious time.

Is it any wonder teachers burn out? We in the profession don’t wonder, we know why.

The above is just one simple example of just how out of touch theorists and so-called ‘experts’ are.

Principals know it is becoming harder and harder both to keep quality teachers and attract graduate students into the profession.

It's time to value time

Not just now but into the future, we need to look at time as our most precious commodity. Time for family, for friends and time for ourselves. Teachers need time to have a life outside of school to give them balance and the capacity to really add value to and enjoy their profession. The more we lose that time and sense of self, the poorer we all become – and so too do our students.

It is time to stand up and shout that we need to value our time and ensure employers do as well.