Rewarding Teachers

A day in the life of a teacher:

This took place some where in New Zealand; it could have been your town, city or community: 

“Mom, there is this big bikie guy at the front door”, Susan her seven year old oldest daughter called out, should I let him in?

No dear I’m on my way, Susan’s mom Jean replied instantly.

She opened the front door a fraction keeping the safety chain attached and said, ‘Can I help you’ as she viewed the six foot two hundred and twenty plus pound heavy weight guy dressed in a black motor-cycle jacket and facial tattoos.    

‘You Mrs. Jean Black, he asked with a growl like tone hardly moving his lips.

“Yes, what do you want”, she asked.

“Sign here”, he said as he pushed an envelope, receipt-book and ball-point pen through the gap between door and door frame”.

She signed and handed him the receipt-book and pen back.

He had a quick glance at the receipt and smiled and took off, his heavy hob-nailed boots echoing on the concrete path…

Susan and her mom Jean retired to the kitchen where Jean opened the official looking envelope with the words ‘Bay-Corp’ debt collection agency PO Box 2333 Auckland printed on the reverse side and her name and address on the front.

Inside was a bill from Bay-Corp informing her that she had been over paid and owed $22.56 by Novo pay and that unless she paid up within 14 days she would be taken to court…

Her daughter knew something was wrong so she went to her mom and gave her a hug; she saw the tears in her mom’s eyes and hugged her even harder…

So yet again Novo-pay had stuffed up, firstly they had paid money directly into her bank account when she wasn’t entitled because she was six months into a year’s maternity leave. After phone calls to Novo-pay along with a couple of emails she repaid the money she wasn’t entitled to, but then Novo-pay told her that she still owned $22.56 because they had paid that automatically to her union…she sent Novo-pay a message suggesting that they should recover that error payment from the union, as she wasn’t paid the money.

She never got a reply…but she did get a note from Bay-Corp Debt Collection Agency on behalf of the Education Department.

What a wonderful vote of thanks from her employers, this after years of training, teaching a huge class of students. For her the reward was a visit from a debt collection agency…yet her boss at the Education got a pay out of four hundred thousand dollars plus, and the Minister of Education Hekia Parata got praised as the great communicator by the PM and New Zealand is about to get Charter Schools.

For Jean the election can’t come soon enough…