Teachers should show restraint and responsibility

Many people have written to you explaining that because teachers have an especially stressful job, they shouldn’t have to pay more into their pension funds and work longer before receiving their pensions.

I can’t think why anyone should believe that their working life should be shorter than their time not working.

It is not as though this system will be starting immediately, which it should in my opinion. For someone to plan what they are going to do when they retire several years beforehand appears to be a bit premature to say the least. Many people really enjoy their work and prefer not to have to retire until they are past their best.

What is not generally recognised is that industrial managers have to take on the school leavers and further train them to earn their living while paying them a minimum wage. Some of the ex pupils are eager to learn and are prepared to work hard, but many are not. Some have left school without basic skills. Unused to long hours, they resent having to work them, so if teachers have a hard stressful time, then industrialists have an even harder time whilst trying to keep their businesses going.

It really is astonishing that so many people ignore world affairs and are only interested in their own position.

The fact that other people in other countries are able and willing to put more hours in and work harder doesn’t appear to affect their thinking at all.

Their jump on the bandwagon that someone else should pay. It never occurs to them that if an industrialist finds work for say 1000,000 employees, then that person deserves a large salary. It is not always bankers who are to blame, some people should have known that they were responsible for taking out loans which they will not be able to repay.

What has happened in Greece and Italy and all over Europe should have a sobering effect instead of the threatened strike action by people who should be showing restraint and leadership with responsibility.