Government needs to put students ahead of political agendas
Who suffers most from a teachers' strike?rnWell obviously the students.
Despite comments from the BCTF that even a strike has little detrimental effect on students' overall learning, it will be those least able to resolve this dispute that suffer the most.
That type of ridiculous comment from the BCTF is not only politically selfish, it is irresponsible. Of course a strike has a detrimental impact on students. Otherwise what is the point of sending them to school in the first place?rnTalk about ridiculous statements.
That said, however, it is the provincial government that truly has the power to end this disruption before it reaches a full strike, and we don't mean by legislating a contract and forcing teachers to accept it. As we see it there are two main issues in this dispute – wages and class size.
Teachers want a raise, and to be quite honest, that doesn't seem to be an unreasonable request, considering how long it has been since teachers last saw a raise in pay.
The issue of class size is something everyone with children should be concerned about. A larger class means less one-on-one attention for students, which certainly can't be a good thing for students.
However, that doesn't mean the government can just let the BCTF determine those limits, given the union's history of selfish political rhetoric.
The economy is very strong in this province right now and a reasonable pay increase, with modest improvements in class size would easily avert any full-out strike by teachers.
The government has the ability to do this, considering its strong fiscal position. The question now is does it have the political will to put students ahead of political agendas?
