Any Harry Potter fan knows this story. The ministry denied that He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named had come back into power. Harry himself had seen otherwise and Dumbledore, the headmaster of the famous Hogwarts, believed him. What ensues is a major conflict between the school and the ministry with many forced decrees and rules imposed by said ministry.
It seems, though Voldemort hasn’t returned to Nova Scotia, there is still a battle raging between the ministry and schools. More specifically, between teachers and Karen Casey the education minister and Steven McNeil the premier.
Teachers and their Order (aka Union) have been trying to settle on a contract for 18 months now. Teachers need things in the classroom to change, yet the government is not willing to negotiate “working conditions” into the contract. The government doesn’t want to negotiate things like class size, data recording, individualized program plans (IPPs), smartphones in the classroom, standardized assessment, lack of preparation time, lack of specialists or supports for the classroom teacher.
The Order has proposed it’s set of beliefs that will change the education system to what it should be. They estimated their proposal to be $508 million. The Ministry said no. How about $41 million instead? The Ministry isn’t even willing to discuss working conditions.
The Ministry is so against this, they locked students out of school yesterday. Teachers reported to work as usual, but not one student stepped foot inside. Teachers voted to work to rule because they didn’t want to disrupt students learning. They still wanted to teach. The Ministry said too bad. If all teachers are doing is teaching, then students will not be supervised during lunch and recess and therefore won’t be safe.
That was a bold-faced lie.
The Order told the Ministry that schools were working to implement supervision to keep students safe. Teachers made it their number one priority to ensure student safety before the strike took effect. Yet the Ministry claims they didn’t know so they closed every school across the province. This forced parents to scramble to find child care and make arrangements for their kids while they were at work.
Voldemort fights dirty and does what is needed to rise to power and stay in power. He doesn’t work for the good of the future, he works for the good of himself. Denying his existence doesn’t make him go away.
Ministry, this is not a game we’re playing here. This is our future, our students, our children, who are affected most. Let the teachers teach and let them do in the best way they know how.
All In A Dad's Work 
As a teacher in Ontario, I am shocked by this. Us closing schools for a major snow storm, once, caused up roar. I couldn’t even begin to image the Ministry closing schools. We did work to rule last year, and than after a lot of negotiations settled a deal. Closing schools? Who in the world does this benefit other than the Ministry? When schools are closed they don’t have to pay teacher salary or when teachers strike they don’t have to pay either. Parents, kids and teachers suffer. I truly hope that the focus shifts to students first in this dangerous game of cat and mouse. Great intro bythe way thought I was going to read a book review 😉
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I’m really hoping the work to rule will be the last straw, but I also have hunch this could go on for quite a while. Negotiations haven’t been going well at all. The day of the lockout teachers still reported to work and were paid! It was only the kids who were missing. There are people here who think it’s about the $$ and teacher salary when it’s really it’s about classroom conditions. The intro was conceived when I read a friend’s status and it was a quote from that book. From there it was easy to make the connection between the Wizarding Ministry and NS government. I stopped short of comparing our Education minister to Umbridge 🙂
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I have seen that in Ontario too, people divided thinking teachers just want more money and fall back on the ‘you have summers off’ line. It is never about the money for teacher, and definatly not about the summers off, it has always been about inproving the students education. I wish the pendulum would swing back where educators were respected
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I have never understood how people can’t understand how important a teacher’s role is. Parents leave us their children to prepare them for the future yet we’re often regarded as no more than babysitters. Our jobs make ALL the other jobs possible. You’re very right. People don’t go into teaching to get rich or for summers off.
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Wow! I’m sure they think that tactic will help win people over to their side against you unreasonable teachers.
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Unfortunately, there are some people (often people who don’t have kids and haven’t seen a classroom since they were there 30 years ago) who think teachers are spoiled. They don’t understand that this isn’t about a pay raise. They make my blood boil. But yet, that move by the government was shooting themselves in the foot.
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