With teachers currently working an average of 53 hours a week, the secretary of the Jersey branch of the Jersey Teachers Association, Tim Balston, said that Jersey risked losing out to the UK.’If England becomes a more attractive place to work, then we’re not going to get the people coming over here,’ he said.’There are shortages in teaching anyway and we won’t get good applicants.
The calibre of teachers may be affected but also the ability to do the job in a professional way and to achieve the standards we’ve done before.
More is being asked of us and that puts an extra load on people and younger teachers want more of a life outside school.’From September, English and Welsh local education authorities start implementing a phased introduction of measures to reduce teachers’ workloads.Mr Balston said as yet there were no plans for Jersey to follow suit and instead of more money being made available, teachers had been told that there was no more cash within the Island’s education budget.
If more money is needed, then cuts will have to be made.
