Students are paying the price

The teachers’ union is persisting with a reactionary position that is holding thousands of students hostage, as educators refuse to finish the job of grading pupils’ high school final exams – on which youngsters rely in order to know which universities they will be eligible to attend. Among the numerous complaints cited by teachers is the fact that the educational reform bill stipulates that they will have to undergo regular assessments of their performance. The position the union has chosen to take makes us wonder what kind of educators it represents, when it is resisting such standard and obvious practice. The union’s constant negative reaction to any attempts to upgrade the quality of education by bringing about necessary changes that will modernize the system and the fact they are hiding behind old-hat polemic rhetoric is not helping anyone. Let us hope that the other teachers, the ones who love what they do – and there are many of them – will take the initiative and stand behind their students by ignoring the ludicrous stance of their less open-minded colleagues.