Attorney Michael de Broglio on: South Africa, Law, Politics, Attorneys, Sport, Photography, Technology, Gadgets, Media, Crime, Road Accidents Fund,
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This is one of those topics I have always felt very passionate about. My grandfather, on my mother’s side was a school principal in Amanzimtoti and my grandmother, Helen Wilson, was a school teacher. She went to University at a time when very few women did and was a very talented women who entered one of the few professions open to women at that time. In those days, being the principal of a school was an important position to hold and would have made you, not quite equal to the Mayor of Amanzimtoti, but certainly to be one of the more prominent people in town and the job was much better paid, relative to other jobs at that time, than it is now.
Teachers around the world are getting paid less and less with the result that the field is attracting the worst students – quite often, and statistics in some countries bear this out, those who take on teaching jobs come in the bottom one-third of the results at their University or College. The countries that are taking education serious and paying quite generously are actually famous for a far better system of education and that would include South Korea, Finland and Germany.
If you want to attract a top talented teacher you have to pay more and you should want to attract the top talented teacher because do you want your children to be taught by the most talentless, bottom of the class people? Teachers should not be at the bottom of the pile when it comes to salaries and as it is we lost a fortune of our top teachers to the UK about 10 to 15 years ago, including one of my good friends, simply because he could earn so much more money in London and be living in an international city as well, than he could in South Africa.
We lost our nurses to Dubai, our dentists to Canada, our doctors to London and all for similar reasons, but I would say really there are few people that are paid less than our nurses and our teachers and both of them are critical. Ask yourself why there has been such an explosion of personal injury and medical negligence cases in South Africa? The best nurses left and we lost a lot of teachers and continue to do so. This however, is not a problem that just South Africa has – too many countries think that they can underpay teachers and that somehow underpaid teachers will produce a new crop of geniuses. If you want the best, you need to pay the best and things get worse when people know that the private schools will pay better salaries to the teachers than in public schools and so of course, the children of middle to wealthy parents pay more so that their children can get a better education and a better teacher than the person sitting in a village in Mpumalanga. The problem is if you don’t educate the person sitting in a village in Mpumalanga properly, there is every chance that he is going to either do something bad to you and your family, because he gets into crime or he is never going to be a valuable member of society.
People always ask me when will South Africa resolve its problems and I always say to them that it will be a number of years after we get the education system right and we have not got it even close to right yet.
Posted by Michael de Broglio on Friday 05-Jul-19
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Comments
patrick said:
on Tuesday 17-Sep-19 04:48 PM
Good education is the only weapon which is capable of making us a world leader. When things went well in Zimbabwe, they had pride in their education system.
Zindy said:
on Monday 16-Sep-19 09:04 AM
Teachers should get paid more. They are the stepping stones to a child's mental and emotional growth. For working parents teachers are considered second mothers for children because kids are spending more time at school with there teachers than the few hours in the evening with there own parents. I do however think they should investigate a little more who they are hiring their should be a criteria, A lot of pre schools example are only a bunch of stay at home moms. Many times these schools you see on the news where they mistreat kids. I think if opening or running any educational institute there should be a stricter criteria whom they hire.
Bianca Taljaard said:
on Monday 16-Sep-19 08:29 AM
Agreed, being a teacher is not a easy job, the need to be payed more
Claudia B said:
on Monday 02-Sep-19 08:59 AM
I would say I agree with this, the teachers do need to be paid more. Education is very important for the kids today.
Joyce said:
on Friday 23-Aug-19 04:53 PM
I salute teachers with the hard work they do. Hopefully their hard work will finally be acknowledged and appreciated
Brenda Du Toit said:
on Friday 23-Aug-19 11:34 AM
I am fully agree with this article teachers need to get paid more.Education is extremely important
Thabitha said:
on Friday 23-Aug-19 09:10 AM
I agree teachers must be paid more especial with kids of nowadays teachers are facing horrible situations.
Daniella said:
on Thursday 22-Aug-19 03:04 PM
I fully agree with this blog teachers and nurses should be paid a lot more! Teachers are shaping the minds of our future generations which is so essential, Nurse on the other hand despite what others think work just as hard and even sometimes hard than the Doctors themselves
Ashleigh said:
on Friday 16-Aug-19 12:23 PM
I really take my hat off to teachers and yes they should be paid more for all that they have to tolerate nowadays with these kids and especially now that corporal punishment has been taken away.
Prishani said:
on Wednesday 14-Aug-19 06:19 PM
Teachers really play a vital role in society that is far too often under estimated. They are humans too and must be appreciated for the very important job they deal with! It will be sad if we lose them because other countries pay more!
Sinead said:
on Tuesday 13-Aug-19 10:39 AM
I once had a teacher who made jokes about how little she earned. She was a bit of a character and we could never take her seriously.
I also remember how my mom explained once that teachers and nurses were taken more seriously back in her mom's day because their jobs were so important.
It's sad to say that the cost of living goes up substantially all the time.
Henrietta said:
on Wednesday 31-Jul-19 04:10 PM
Sad but true. Teachers and nurses are way underpaid but also risking their lives. I mean how many teachers as attached by pupils. Shootouts at schools, burning down school building including books and all educational accessories and then demands education, sometimes Im am flabbergasted by SA and the way the people think. SA needs to look after their own idf they want to see a change in this country.
Helen said:
on Wednesday 31-Jul-19 07:44 AM
I believe that you have to be born to become a teacher. Talent to teach someone and have patient to do that will come naturally. Very sad that in todays world because of little wages in this profession lots of people decide not too consider study further and to go to this field, people who has talent to teach. I am fully agree with this article! Good, experienced teachers are leaving country for better lifestyle and to be safe.
Zandelee said:
on Monday 29-Jul-19 08:19 PM
I agree - alot of people look down on teachers yet they are the ones who lay the building blocks and foundation for one's future. During high school, I honestly learned something from each and every teacher I had whether it was about respect, leadership or religion. I think alot of people are very unappreciative of the role of a teacher.
Sarah said:
on Tuesday 23-Jul-19 12:07 PM
I agree fully with this article but also it is not easy teaching other people kids , that is being disrespectful etc. I thinks a teacher job is one of the hardest jobs
Melissa said:
on Monday 22-Jul-19 01:34 PM
I agree that teachers need to get paid more. It is also not easy to be a teacher in today's time as students are extremely rude nowadays. This country will be a better place if more people are educated.
Victoria said:
on Thursday 18-Jul-19 11:41 AM
Education is extremely important and I agree that if you want the best teachers you need to pay them the best salary. If more people get educated the better South Africa will become.
Brumilde Cronje said:
on Thursday 18-Jul-19 07:11 AM
I agree 100% that teachers should be looked after and respected and paid more, they educate the future generations. Most of us don't earn enough money to pay for private schools so we reply on government education. to teach someone to fish is to feed them or something like that.
patrick said:
on Wednesday 17-Jul-19 08:08 AM
For me there is three basic careers that should be made attractive if we are to get the country right. Is Teaching, Nursing and being a Police. If we pay those people well, we will be doing good.
Alexis said:
on Monday 15-Jul-19 12:13 PM
Teachers, being the backbone of any country should be treated as such and paid significantly well. A country is not going to go forth and prosper if education is not dealt with right. It is such a pity that they are not held high in that regard
Jadine Richards said:
on Friday 12-Jul-19 10:53 AM
It really is a vicious cycle. There needs to be major investment in this sector. Teachers need to be compensated fairly considering all the nonsense that they have to deal with. We cannot expect anybody earning a miserable wage to want to be good at their job or be innovative or hard working.
Angelique Jurgens said:
on Friday 12-Jul-19 09:20 AM
I agree - one of the most important jobs is that of a teacher. Our government should focus on education and the entire teaching system. Where are the teachers rights? Besides being underpaid they are undervalued and often abused. We need to tackle this issue. The youth are really our future leaders of a better life for all in SA. It is a miracle that we still have teachers when there are far better opportunities teaching overseas - even just teaching English in China or Thailand seems better than dealing with our country. Teachers are definitely overworked and underpaid!
Melissa van Tellingen said:
on Thursday 11-Jul-19 09:54 AM
I couldn't agree more with Nicolle's comment on this blog. There were a couple of videos doing the rounds on social media about children being so disrespectful to teachers, hitting them and swearing at them. How does the department allow such behaviour.
Megan said:
on Tuesday 09-Jul-19 02:56 PM
I agree that if individuals were paid the wages they deserved, there wouldn't be such a barrier preventing the country from growing. It's a chain reaction as we all know, if the teacher can't teach the learner won't learn resulting in a society with uneducated individuals. Maybe if the government wasn't so corrupt and the money was correctly allocated, we wouldn't constantly be having minor issues becoming such huge ones! We hope for change, but when is it ever coming?
Nicolle said:
on Tuesday 09-Jul-19 07:21 AM
They fact that many professions are paid so little, it opens the possibility for immigration. We are loosing valuable knowledge of various qualified people because of the economic situation and also, not just that, but too many human rights that kids possess, ending up being disrespectful to the educators, because they can get away with it
sandra said:
on Tuesday 09-Jul-19 07:19 AM
I believe that if various professions got paid more, there would be a lesser need to immigrate to other countries (apart for the crime stats). However, i believe each country has its own downfalls.
candice said:
on Friday 05-Jul-19 04:24 PM
I agree they do get paid a lot less then most professions in this Country but there are a lot of challenges as the pupils that are given a chance in the rural areas burn down the schools and books that they are given.So there are hardly any teachers that want to teach in those situations. And the Schools in the City it seems that we hardly have passionate teachers anymore they basically only teaching for a salary. And the ones that have a passion for teaching really Don't care about the money they get joy out of the fact they helping children learn and to become successful in life.
Michelle Smillie said:
on Friday 05-Jul-19 01:32 PM
I also think that the curriculum that keeps being degraded as well as the continuous declination in discipline from parents are causing teachers to not enjoy their work anymore. It makes it very difficult for them to do their work effectively and to be appreciated. I wanted to become a teacher as a child but am glad that I chose the legal industry instead.
david said:
on Friday 05-Jul-19 11:16 AM
as far as i am concerned half the problem is SADTU.
teachers on strike?
union meetings during teaching hours?
jobs for pals/payment?
protecting of useless teachers so they cannot be fired?
etc etc.
Jessica M said:
on Friday 05-Jul-19 09:31 AM
I have to agree. I believe that teachers are paid very little for the big job they actually have to do. I also think that kid's are becoming more and more naughty and not disciplined and they have to deal with their nonsense ALL DAY. I take my hat off to teachers. I would never be one.
Bianca N said:
on Friday 05-Jul-19 09:31 AM
It's sad and scary to think that we rely on underpaid teachers who may not have the same passion for their careers, to teach our children and provide a proper education. I agree that those who live in poverty also need a good education to give them better opportunities in future so that they can break the cycle of living in poverty. I honestly love working with children, but the way teachers get paid I won't be able to support my own children if I had to go into teaching.
Nikita said:
on Friday 05-Jul-19 09:28 AM
Yet we have the Minister proudly proclaiming that the education system is on the rise? The recent survey done into violence in schools revealed that SA was amongst the highest of all nations surveyed. They also noted that teachers in SA schools spend only 66% of their time teaching compared to the other nations who average at 78%. I think this will be because of the violence and disruption of the students. It is next to impossible to teach students that have no respect for their teachers or the system. Most of the students today seem to have the attitude that they don't need to work hard to get an education. I also heard on the radio that the Minister of Education will not be spending any of the departments funds on rebuilding schools in areas where the community burn them down and I fully agree with this. If they spend the money to rebuild the schools the community will just keep burning buildings which is counter productive. I for one would never be a teacher in this day and age.
Lucretia said:
on Friday 05-Jul-19 09:27 AM
We have quite a few family members who are teachers as well. I know that the thinking in years gone by was that teaching was a calling and not just a job. I know many teachers who are born teachers and the money does not deter them from teaching. Yes teachers need more pay but, do we want to attract teachers on that basis or do we want to attract people who have the passion to teach. My niece does not earn too bad a salary for her age in the government school she teaches at and her perks she has as being a teacher she feels makes up for her salary. Lucky lady is still on her mid year holidays :-)
Johannesburg based attorney specializing in personal injury matters including Road Accident Fund claims and medical negligence matters. My interests include golf, reading and the internet and the way it is constantly developing. I have a passion for life and a desire for less stress!
