Dear Editor:
Isn’t it truly amazing that the first week of the public schools being in session has come to a conclusion and the sky has not fallen, the economy has not tumbled into the depths of the worst depression ever, and our children and youth are not out on the streets begging for food and handouts.
Yet reading and listening to the media at the beginning of the week one would think the above would have been the outcome.
Instead we have, in the province, a group of about 36,000 dedicated professionals, our public school teachers, doing exactly what they should be doing; welcoming their students back to school and back to an exciting new year of learning adventures, working diligently in their classrooms with their students to provide the optimum learning opportunities despite a government that has for over a decade been under funding the public schools, and spending countless additional hours in preparing for the teaching work they do, marking assignments, meeting with parents, and keeping records of the progress that their students show.
Our teachers have been doing exactly what they should be doing and this despite the uncooperative British Columbia Public Schools Employers Association and local Boards of Education which have refused to negotiate a new contract with teachers by hiding behind the coat-tails of the Minister of Education, Mr. Abbott, and the Christy Clark Liberal government.
I believe it would be best for the media and the public to let the parties roll up their sleeves and sit down to a serious set of negotiations without the interference of government and allow Boards of Education, BCPSEA., and teacher representatives to reach contract agreements that are truly negotiated by the respective parties charged with that duty.
British Columbia and Canada are known worldwide as a province and a country that highly values public education, which demands quality teaching based on best of practice research, and that has one of the very best educations systems in the world in spite of large classes and the lack of sufficient support for our students with special needs.
Terry Green
Summerland