More questions than answers

16.MAY.08

Editor: Earning a job within the government system appears to be a process that is plagued with favoritism.

It is as though one has to come from a particular ‘class’ in order to get apt attention, or could it be that the technocrats are unconcerned once there is bread on their table?{{more}} I wonder if our P.M. really knows

what is going on. If I am correct, these practices do not reflect the principles which he holds.

A trained teacher by profession, and it has been eleven months since I have earned my certification in teacher education, but yet I cannot get my rightful employment as a QAT. It was practical during the reign of the past administration that teachers were appointed immediately after qualification and reimbursed retroactively from the date of certification. This practice had been changed, so teachers upon qualification no longer receive any retroactive payment. This is certainly a backward step and really leaves room for the many unfair practices.

Most of the teachers who were trained with me are already employed as Qualified Assistant Teachers from ‘early’ as January this year, yet I am forced to wait with much disappointment. My colleagues are benefiting from a significant difference in remuneration than me. As I wait with anxiety, my cheque falls short in numbers every month. I say what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Why should I be made to work as hard as or even harder than others but with less pay? Maybe someone has mistaken me for poor Billy Button.

The number of bills that I have to pay consumes most of my salary. The pressures which I am forced to endure in my attempt to make ends meet are unbearable. I am distressed to an extent where I feel like giving up. Sometimes I feel as though I am in the wrong place.

Despite my passion for teaching, at the end of the day, I have my own affairs to handle. The technocrats say that there is nothing that they can do, since they have to wait on a vacancy to do justice. Can it be that there is not enough money to pay the workers?

Maybe we have just bitten off more than we can chew. The cooks should be aware that all teachers need an equal bite of the pie. Why feed some while others are left to starve? How much more must I endure? There are so many questions and so very few answers.

Distressed Teacher