Teachers protest new computer system

Monday March 8, 2010

By John Thompson

Ian Stewart/Yukon News

MACKWOOD002
Yukon Teachers’ Association president Katherine Mackwood.

Yukon’s teachers are refusing to learn how to use a new computer system unless the training occurs during class time – or they’re paid more money.

The Education Department has begun rolling out the Yukon Student Information System, which tracks students’ attendance, behavior and academic performance. But the Yukon Teachers
Association protests that it was never properly consulted, as required under the collective agreement. It’s filed a policy grievance.

In a February newsletter, President Katherine Mackwood compared the government’s actions to that of a dictatorship, with teachers playing the role of downtrodden citizens.

“We speak of values we want our young to possess, yet all too frequently we fall prey to authoritarian behaviour either as an autocrat or as a casualty too intimidated to let our voice be
heard,” she wrote.

“Many of you who read this may think these are strong words and are not indicative of your experience. However, others encounter circumstances such as these, daily.”

Mackwood didn’t respond to an interview request. But the newsletter spells out the union’s complaint.

According to the collective agreement, the territory needs to give the teachers association three months written notice before introducing any technological change that affects teachers. The
two parties are also supposed to sit down and hash out an agreement as to how workers will be trained.

Mackwood argues that work performed by teachers outside of class is “voluntarily.” And because the computer training is proposed to happen outside of class time, “members are entitled to
be paid for that time.”

Holding the training in place of a regularly-scheduled staff meeting is a non-starter with the union. “Training shouldn’t be shoehorned into scarce staff meeting time,” Mackwood wrote.

The territory purchased the computer system over the past year for $625,000.

The system was installed in response to criticism by auditor general Sheila Fraser, who took the Education Department to task for not keeping adequate track of the information it collects.
She was particularly concerned that information on students with special needs was not always transferred from school to school.

The Public Service Commission isn’t commenting on the grievance.

Contact John Thompson at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Bookmark and Share 13 Comments

5:04am 03/23/10  |  EdtheTed wrote:

bobvibert: re teachers “working for a living”. Is there any intervention going on between the jar of cliches in your brain and your fingers on the keyboard? Teachers do work because they look after your kids, and given the poverty of your rhetoric, that’s probably not easy. Aside from cliches, try reading the article. The teachers have a contract which the government ignored. BTW, I’m not a teacher, but I do read.

11:35am 03/22/10  |  bobvibert wrote:

Wa, Wa, Wa, here they Go again. Always bellyaching about something. What would they bellyache about next, if any of these teachers had to WORK for a living? Bet they dont even know what that word means anymore?

12:13pm 03/12/10  |  yukonexpat wrote:

Dan, you are not as separated from the information as you may think ... smile

10:06am 03/12/10  |  JMan wrote:

Yukon teachers need to up their progress to be asking for more money! I would think.

6:25pm 03/11/10  |  Dan Davidson wrote:

Glad to hear I was not misinformed. My information came, via several degrees of separation, from someone who used to work in the Dept.‘s assessment branch but who now works in BCEd, from whence this “beta level” software arrived. Beta level, for those who don’t know, is unproven software with lots of bugs still in it. In its anxiety to respond to the Auditor General’s report the Dept. has done a lot of stupid things in the last year, but this one would actually make the problems worse.

3:25pm 03/11/10  |  yukonexpat wrote:

Dan, you are absolutely correct. Having some personal insight on this situation, and being in the industry in BC, I can confirm many entire BC districts are “bailing” on it. Won’t be long before the BC Ministry pulls the pin on the entire system. Just one more example of miserably poor recent research by the DoE, and a couple of individuals push to ram things down people’s throats..

10:05pm 03/10/10  |  Dan Davidson wrote:

The system under discussion has already been introduced in BC and is, I have been told, failing miserably down there. Whole school districts (much larger than the Yukon) have refused to use it. It is picky to do the entry and the saving of the data appears to be unstable, rendering your records unreliable. This will be another innovation like portfolios or hanging on to examinations that BC no longer cares to make mandatory.

8:38am 03/10/10  |  YukonRob wrote:

Maybe bring them in in early August for training. If we warn them now it should be enough notice.

4:31pm 03/09/10  |  flyingfur wrote:

It’s there in almost plain English; give notice of new tech and agree on how and when to train.  What’s so hard about following this agreement?  YG just needs to admit they did not give adequate written notice and the policy grievance goes away.  Schedule a PD day or two to get the teachers trained up and away we go.

4:17pm 03/09/10  |  redscuba wrote:

Good point.  The words “Yukon Government” and “competent” are not ones I would generally use in the same sentence.

2:39pm 03/09/10  |  EdtheTed wrote:

It is true that her words certainly sound “entitled”. But what about the fact that the government spent over $600,000 on a system without planning for training or thinking about the contract?

4:45am 03/09/10  |  redscuba wrote:

The culture of entitlement within Yukon Government is truly phenomenal. Employees not buying in and trying to be productive (usually recent imports from southern reality) are often marginalized or even disciplined by senior managers and other “leaders” who are products and propagators of this corrupt system.  So sad for the kids who will assimilate this culture buy such examples.

1:29pm 03/08/10  |  Joe wrote:

Give them a raise, educate them, massage the delusional sense of entitlement so they may pass it on to our children ensuring a lack of accountability.

Thank you for the ever lasting impression you direct Ms Mackwood.

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