Amid a tremulous economic climate where expendable cash levels are dwindling and unemployment is on the rise, nobody it seems, is doing it harder than our educators.

For as long as people have yearned for knowledge, there have been people equipped to educate them. Similarly, for as long as there have been teachers, there have been people to take them for granted. What many of us ignorant folk don’t realise is the lengths to which these fine people must go, every day, in order to perform this specialised task. It seems illogical that one superhuman entity is charged with controlling a rabble numbering upwards of twenty and yes, one would be forgiven for thinking that these must be among the highest paid individuals on the planet.

They’re not though.

A teacher’s starting salary in New Zealand, is below the national remuneration average. Even once they have cemented their spot in the industry, clocking up countless hours before a whiteboard, before a throng of restive rapscallions, they can never expect to become wealthy people. A little known fact is that, while most every other industry in the world has undergone regular pay increases, the teacher’s salary has remained more or less constant. Teachers themselves have needed to keep up with regular up-skilling and refreshing of qualifications, in order to meet the ever-changing demands of the student body, so why isn’t their pay reflecting of this dedication?

In the UK the situation is equally as dire. A developing trend is pupils achieving lower grades in schools among the more affluent areas, simply because these facilities cannot attract quality teachers to their doors.

In the US, Microsoft founder and former Chairman, Bill Gates is undertaking work to ease the funding deficit in schools by making the audacious claim, “Lower teacher salaries, raise class sizes.”

Back in NZ we have school-age children not attending classes, we have teachers who are qualified to teach but on account of low wages and high living costs, are forced to find employment elsewhere; we have public schools dilapidating through a further lack of Government funding… We have an utter bloody shambles in our education system.

Why though, do we as a nation not cherish our educators – why are they not the most embraced people in the world? They have certainly committed to one of the most important jobs in the world, given that without education, this nation would come to an obtuse standstill. So why are we not more appreciative of the work teachers do? Is it perhaps because at first impression they only work a six hour day? Fact. A typical teacher arrives at school before eight, stays at least until after four, then brings home enough bookwork to keep the most adroit accountant busy for days. So is it because their job appears easy, reading formulae from a textbook, computer screen and such? Easy, eh? Are you a parent? How would you enjoy having two kids at home all day? Multiply that by ten, then try to teach them something. Yeah. So easy.

New Zealand. Look after your teachers. Cherish them, embrace them, love them for what they do for your children. Don’t lower their salaries and in fact for a better idea, raise them tenfold. To quote a hackneyed phrase, ‘Children are our future’. True as that may be, it’s a bleak future if the aforementioned youth grow up uneducated.