Teachers strikes disrupt your kids education? Maybe don’t take them on holiday in term time…
What’s the difference between a teachers strike and taking the kids on holiday during term time?
According to father, Wesley Joyce, nothing – and they should be fined like he was.
Do you think he has a point? Or does someone who can afford to spend £7000 on a holiday have the right to lecture teachers striking for better pay?
Let us know what you think.
'Teachers are already penalised! They don't get paid to strike.'
So, father of three children and two stepchildren, Wesley Joyce, can afford £5,000 to take them on holiday but baulks at paying the £360 he was fined for it being during term time (Metro, Tue).
The builder says the same ten-day holiday to Turkey would have cost £12,000 if it had been during the summer break.
He further suggests that teachers should be also penalised for exercising their right to strike. They are. Doesn’t he know they don’t get paid when on strike?
He also says that teachers should have known what the pay and conditions were like before entering the profession.
They did 15 years ago but thanks to austerity and the current government the value of their pay and conditions have been eroded significantly.
And if teachers voted with their feet and left the profession, or current graduates didn’t join at all, who would teach Mr Joyce’s children then?
Natalie Pemberton, Leeds.
What do they say about people in glass houses?
Mr Joyce suggests teachers get a new job. But surely he knows the terms and conditions of his own job. And so I suggest that he goes and finds a job where he earns enough to afford a family holiday outside of term time.
The fact of the matter is that teachers lose a day’s earning for every strike day and they have lost more pay than the value of fines he has received.
Teachers have been offered a pay increase but continue to strike because the government is not funding schools to cover increased payroll costs.
They have chosen to continue to sacrifice their own salary to demand support for the nation’s children, so schools have supplies, equipment and teaching support. They are fed up with being asked to achieve more with less.
And as for teachers getting jobs elsewhere, unfortunately many are already leaving in huge numbers to work where their value is taken seriously and they have a hope of maintaining a work-life balance. Sarah (Married To A Teacher), Manchester
METRO TALK - HAVE YOUR SAY
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Are parents like these one reason why teachers are striking?
It is ironic to me that Mr Joyce doesn’t see the lack of logic in his own argument.
He wishes to take his children out of education to keep the cost of his holiday low but is disgruntled when teachers strike – in the aim of achieving sustainable salaries – because it is disruptive to his children’s education.
It seems futile to impress this on someone with such views but perhaps Mr Joyce would benefit from a few days in the classroom – although his ability to subtract £7,000 from £12,000 was extremely impressive. Well done, Mr Joyce’s maths teacher! Jonathan, Manchester
Anyone who can afford a £7,000 holiday can easily afford a £360 fine. No wonder teachers are striking when they have to put up with parents like that. Brenda McPherson, Horncastle
Mr Joyce should do his homework as to why teachers are striking before he makes his ill-informed comments. Zero out of ten for attitude, Mr Joyce! J McGee, Worcester
Wesley Joyce perfectly demonstrates a major issue in society today – that of selfish individualism. How dare teachers fight for better pay and conditions when it impacts his £7,000 family holiday! The Doc, Epsom.
If Wesley Joyce can only afford to take his family to Turkey during term-time, maybe he should be the one to get a new job instead of slamming underpaid, overworked teachers. Rob, via text
And here’s what else being discussed on Metro’s letters page:
In all his 200-plus word rant about the failings of Labour governments (past and future) David Lindsay (MetroTalk, Tue) fails to explain how the Conservative government, during its 13 years in office, has failed to correct the terrible mistakes he claims were made or how, by practically any measure, the UK is now in a worse situation than it was in 2010. Martin, London
I have voted for all the major parties, so have no allegiance. The present Conservative Party has made a total mess of the country, with ridiculous high interest rates and government debt increasing daily.
This country is non-functioning, with strike upon strike. Our only hope now is a change in government and a reset of the political agenda. I believe Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has a very different agenda and one that is totally logical. Let’s take non-doms’ tax as an example. Why should the wealthy be allowed to live in the UK and pay no tax when the country is broke?
If elected, this change in the non-dom status by the Labour Party would generate billions for the Treasury to help reduce government borrowing.
The counter-argument is these wealthy people would leave! Well, on the basis other countries generally do not offer this tax benefit, where would they go? Brendan, via email
I don’t see any difference between the two main parties now.
Labour doesn’t have any innovative policies or ideas to make things better, they just want to repeat soundbites and buzz words that they think Middle England wants to hear.
Paul, Croydon
Is it time for society to take a digital detox? We can make it happen
Jeanie (MetroTalk, Mon) wrote about her experience in a restaurant, where she and her boyfriend were handed a QR code as a menu and told they could only order online. Well it is time we, the people, (who are the majority) started acting.Jeanie and her boyfriend should just have left the restaurant.
Also when you are told that cash is not accepted, just leave and go somewhere else. If you are in a restaurant and have already eaten and they do not want cash, tell them ‘thank you for the free meal’ and see what they say.
Cash is legal tender, if they do not accept it, they do not want to be paid. When the restaurants start being empty they will give up QR codes, not serving people and not accepting cash.
Carla, London
MORE : Dad ‘fines’ teachers for strikes after he got penalty for taking kids on holiday
MORE : Labour would give new teachers £2,400 to stop them quitting