Fellow Victorian Teachers

[porkvindaloo]

I agree strongly with anyone who is criticizing the VIT. They do absolutely nothing of any good for anyone at all. All they do is take our money, cause annoyance, make life difficult and generally piss us off. I've just had to do my five year renewal and it made me very angry. FUCK THE VIT. If this gets any worse we'll have to do something about it

[alimcg]

It underlines the inherent problems associated with these type of bodies. They're entrusted with what is essentially a niche area, an area that requires specific knowledge and training to teach, but they have no understanding or appreciation of student or teacher needs in such a niche (pronounced "nitch").

A body that is geared towards general teaching is never going to provide the support or understanding needed by music educators, and will struggle to comprehend that the person they see as "unqualified" will often be the most qualified person for the job. This also strikes at the heart of ensemble direction in schools, not just instrumental teaching.

[ironguts]

thats perty well writ for a dumber! its amazing considering you carnt even play a specific piche!

[alimcg]

me mum dun help me rite that won

[captain]

Isn't 'Bap', a pitch?

[shaggaz]

Thanks to everyone for their replies!

I'd just like to add that if the VIT were to invent some kind of fair assessment system for teachers without education qualifications (hey, I can dream), I would gladly take part.
I am not a trained teacher, I learnt on the job and am very grateful to the schools who originally took me on and to the staff who coached and mentored me. I am happy to have my skills assessed.

Thanks Joffa, I may well take our case to the VTU, but I'm not a member, so may have to rectify that situation first.

[timothystevens]

You're right – in and of itself the idea of a regulatory body is probably not a bad thing. But when the regulations stink they way they do at the VIT, the whole thing would be better dismantled and sold for scrap.

[ironguts]

Wow, dont' mean to be pikkie, but Tim made a boo boo, even though whet he sayed was bloody beauty.

[timothystevens]

Hara-kiri to follow.

[alimcg]

Of course this is also the organization that forgot to bill me for 2 years. Even though they had my correct address, one piece of mail was returned to them. This resulted not in them calling or emailing me to check my address, but in them striking me from the database. I believe this accurately encapulates their incompetence and irrelevance.

[alimcg]

There has been some talk that the VIT regulations will be changed at some point in the not-too-distant future, so that only teachers with a teaching degree would be able to teach instrumental music in schools (or state schools at least). Yesterday The Age's education lift-out had a spread on music in schools, not overly informative for someone on the inside, but maybe worthy reading for parents/students. I did however come across this statistic - 13% of music teachers have a teaching degree and 20% have no qualification at all.

I would assume then that 67% of music teachers have a BMus, music diploma, or similar. If the regulations do change, where on earth are they going to find enough suitably qualified teachers to replace the 87% with no teaching qualification?

Also, should we be concerned about the 20% completely lacking in formal qualifications? (Not every person lacking formal qualifications will be as well qualified as ironguts...)

NB. It's possible that I've misinterpreted the stats, or that the article omitted an important detail regarding those figures - I'm just going on what I read. I'd put a link, but it doesn't appear to be on their website yet.

[punter]

Is this only secondary teachers?
It's so ridiculous, the real scandal is the outsourcing of music teaching in primary schools... what goes on with some of these shonky organisations is an absolute disaster but it has somehow escaped attention. Not saying all of these organisations are bad but when they are there are virtually no regulations. Take Musicorp for example... or Andrew Best's 'operation'...

[alimcg]

The article didn't specify secondary or primary, and it did cover a bit of both.

I don't know much about the primary school side of things. I think some primary schools suffer further as there is often no musical experience among the staff, no music specialist, so when things get out-sourced nobody knows enough to know when things aren't quite right.

[punter]

Yes you're exactly right and the VIT does nothing about it... instead they just get in the way of secondary instrumental teachers who are doing a fine job. Bloody parasites!

[vickibonet]

At this time of year, with the delightful recitals one ends up attending, I'm reminded how incredible good music teachers are and how hard they work.

Here's a way to lobby for change without spending a penny:

petitions.takingitglobal.org/home/index.html

or

www.ipetitions.com/start-petition/

or

www.gopetition.com.au/