----- Original Message ----- From: Michele Ben - mggben@xxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Lessons for Teachers- Ha'aretz article Excellent article. About Ontario - I spent a month there this past summer. For a few days we stayed with friends where two of the sisters were in education, one in training and one had just finished a TESOL / TEFL certificate. The one in training was finishing up a MA or MSc in a science subject (biotech if I'm not mistaken.) She was just starting her teacher training course. She had to have the MA in hand to begin the teachers' training. The course is a two or three year thing. And when she finishes, there's no guarantee of employment. Apparently there are 3 or 4 canditates for every teaching position that opens up. The pay is triple or quadruple to what we make here and competitive with fields that require the level of academic education that teaching requires. The sister with the English language teaching certification was spending weekdays at her parents' home, leaving a family with a bunch of kids, and going home on the weekends so she could work. She felt that she had won the jackpot when she was hired for her summer job. I also spoke to a couple who were both teachers. We compared notes: Numbers of kids in class, frontal hours taught, conditions in the schools, and salary. Needless to say, we come out behind on all counts. They were flabbergasted when they heard what we put up with and the conditions under which we work. As far as budget goes, if the money spent on paying people to drink coffee and read the newspaper in Misrad HaHinuch was put into teachers' salaries and improving our conditions then things would improve without any budget increases. Michele Laurie wrote: > This is not specifically related to English although, it does refer to the > subject and certainly worth a read as we are part of a larger system. > Well-written and reported, in my opinion. Again, Or Kashti from Ha'aretz. > http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1088736.html ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------