Dear Captains Of Industry...

Would you like a better & bigger talent pool?

Business small, medium or large have the same problems. Where to get staff, educated and free thinking staff. Without good staff in any field your company is just not as good as it could be.

Everyone who has a job, has one thing in common. They went to school. Usually a local one. If you ask any parent what is the most important aspect of their pride and joy's school career, the answer is... their teachers. Sometimes the only difference between a pass, fail or an excellent mark is the calibre of teacher. ( yes, the pupils and parents need to do the work too ).

Teachers in most countries do not earn an excellent living wage ( you know, enough to have a roof over their head, food on their table and a car to get to work ) In some countries they do, but often not. Don't forget that teachers go to University the same amount of time as anyone else. Teachers create the foundation of knowledge in our future leaders. Or for you, in your future staff.

When as a teacher you don't earn enough to survive, you start to supplement with extra jobs. Extra jobs might dilute the energy available for the classroom. Most of you " Captains of Industry " send your offspring to Private Schools. Schools where the teachers might earn 2-3 times what they would earn in the public schools. Those teachers can focus 100% on their pupils.

As a society, we need to ensure that teachers the world over are firstly revered and secondly amply paid ( Interesting article ). If the starting salaries of teachers ( and naturally there needs to be a yardstick for quality ) are similar to lawyers and doctors, the teaching profession may attract more teachers.

Here is my suggestion. Why don't you sponsor a school near you by supplementing teacher salaries? Yes, I know that you pay lots of taxes, but alas, governments don't consider teachers as much a priority as Defence etc. You should consider this supplementing as an investment to ensure a future supply of good calibre staff.

Some of you might grumble that teachers have so many holidays. Yes, they do, but remember those birthday parties you had when your kids were young? You know, when 10 or so kids ran around screaming, hitting each other or just refused to listen to you? Imagine having those parties all day long, one after the other, all year around...eh, who deserves a holiday now?

Dear readers, should you agree with this, please share it with your friends.

Biggi