13-year-old girl crushed to death during teacher strike

[C0ckney]

yes well said HC. who cares about a petty thing like a pension, compared to one day at school.

although i happen to think the teachers are wrong and that public sector pensions need reform.

[C0ckney]

and yeah this is such bull**** from the telegraph. utterly shameful.

[Cort Haus]

Instead the outrage should be over the fact that the teachers are forcing students out of school for their petty pension benefits.

The pension issue isn't petty at all. I'm not saying I agree with their case but it isn't trivial.

[DaShi]

I don't care for unions, but it was this girl's time to go. Nothing to do with a union. Unfortunate event though.

And if the strike didn't get her, Sloww would go over there and trample her himself.

[Asher]

According to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_vacation#By_country
Freaks.

The US public school system has ~20 less school days than Canada...probably more in the UK. Summer vacations are much shorter here.

[Kuciwalker]

Instead the outrage should be over the fact that the teachers are forcing students out of school for their petty pension benefits.

There is no sense in which the word "petty" is appropriate there. Seriously, think about things harder before you post.

[SlowwHand]

You make great effort to show that you're a true idiot, don't you DaShi?

[DaShi]

I :heart: how sensitive you are.

[DanS]

There is no sense in which the word "petty" is appropriate there. Seriously, think about things harder before you post.

Rather, he should think less before posting, in order to maintain the standard around here...

[MikeH]

I don't care for unions, but it was this girl's time to go. Nothing to do with a union. Unfortunate event though.

SlowwHand speaks the truth.

Sad event, and really sad that the Torygraph uses it to try and score a political point.

[kittenOFchaos]

Instead the outrage should be over the fact that the teachers are forcing students out of school for their petty pension benefits.

Pension benefits aren't petty, they're vital to ensure a decent standard of living in your later years. They are also part of the package that we teachers signed up for when we entered the profession.

Our pay is already suffering as it is frozen and not keeping up with inflation which is high. Worse still, schools are being forced/encouraged to become Academies which effectively allows our terms and conditions laid out in negociation with the Labour Government to be eroded.

In terms of pensions, this is a relevant quote from the National Union of Teachers:

"The National Audit Office has confirmed that public sector pension costs are falling as expected due to the reforms already in place. Teachers are already paying more, the normal pension age has been raised to 65 for new entrants and employer contributions have been capped. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has also been highly critical of the Government's pension strategy which they say is based more on public perception of public sector pensions than on actual figures."

Despite this the Government want to have us working longer, paying far more and getting less. This isn't part of the package we signed up for when we entered the profession. The difference is considerable and could cost many £100,000s. In my case, I wouldn't have signed up for this pension scheme and invested it in bricks and mortar.

This attack on our pensions doesn't even make sense in terms of Government policy which is to attract high quality graduates into the profession and retain those already teaching. It also appears vindictive given that the Government can find £600 million for education in Pakistan which simply means Pakistan has more money for its military. Indeed, our Government is quite lavish with money for other countries that can afford nuclear weapons (India) and for hopeless cases such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Had the Government simply kept things as they were, which they can actually afford according to the National Audit, they wouldn't have had this strike. At this time, with rents and inflation through the roof and pay frozen, do you really think we want to strike and earn less? Hardly.

Personally, I think it is apt that Michael Gove is quoted as saying that "Like Chairman Mao, we’ve embarked on a Long March to reform our education system". I don't disagree with that assessment. Quite apart from that, I don't particularly value his vision for education given he has no background in education. He was a reporter turned journalist. Worse still, he is an English graduate who thought he could talk about standards in Science education whilst remarking that many children don't even know Newton's Law of Thermodynamics - seriously!!!

[Tupac Shakur]

Pension benefits aren't petty, they're vital to ensure a decent standard of living in your later years.

Why don't you just keep working? It's not as though teaching is a physically demanding profession that one can't do past a certain age.

[Hauldren Collider]

Hence, why I consider this petty. They're not coal miners, they're teachers. Their jobs are pretty cushy as jobs go.

[giblets]

Holy ****. Not retiring is petty?

[Tupac Shakur]

Lengthy retirement is an historical anomaly, and every generation following the Baby Boomers should be preparing not to enjoy it.