Workload January 18, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , trackback
Tracey commented about workloads as a safety issue.
“Task inflation” is a common complaint from support staff. As tasks are shed by teaching staff in the wake of McCrone they have to be delegated to someone, often “the someone” is a member of the technical support staff. The introduction of intermediate courses in each of the separate sciences has also added to workload.
Sometimes sacrifices have to be made and standards are often the first casualty. No technician I have ever met likes to admit that their standards have fallen, but sadly its often a fact of life these days as more and more is asked from technical support staff.
There are set levels of ratios of teachers to pupils but in many local authorities no such formula is applied to technical support.
Some councils use the school roll, or the amount of hours of science taught, when calculating levels of technical support. Others use no guidelines and the technicians are left to get on with it, often being the first to suffer when budgets are tight.
For example when I first started at Musselburgh Grammar there were approx eight teachers of science and two technicians, the school roll was around 700.
Next term we will have nineteen staff in the science department and the school roll is now around 1300-1400 and we still have only have two technicians. Its not surprising that I feel that I cannot provide the same standards of service that I did when I first started, there simply just isn’t the time.
So what is the answer?
· Local authorities that currently do not use any formula in determining levels of technical support need to review their staffing levels and work with advisory groups such as SSERC and STAG to agree a formula to be used in their schools.
· Reducing technical support staffing levels should not be seen as an easy way to trim budgets.
· Technicians should take any opportunity that they have, to remind anyone who is listening, that for science to flourish within schools and for attainment to be raised, it is critical that experienced, well trained, motivated, technical support staff be in place in sufficient numbers to provide an efficient practical service.
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Interesting post Brian. We at Knox Academy have 2 technicians and one lab assistant. I would just like to give credit to these three individuals whose on going hard work is so greatly appreciated. Sometimes as teachers we forget how valuable support staff are. Indeed, in my own teaching, they form a fundamental part of the back bone.
Thanks for the support Tess.
Its teachers such as yourself that need to back the technical support staff. Its vitally important to have teaching staff on our side who are prepared to speak out when they feel the service they are receiving is being diminished through the ever increasing workloads technicians are having to cope with these days.