Work-to-rule

Maybe some have heard of it, the Nova Scotia teacher's are striking. It's called Work-to-Rule. What it does I'll explain to you now, because some of my German Friends asked me.

In general it means, that the teachers just do what is written in their contract. That means: They'll come 20 minutes before school starts and leave 20 minutes after it ends. They are not allowed to go against that... Also they are not allowed to do anything extra-curricular: No sports, no clubs and no extra help. In addition, there are no provincial exams. The teachers have to provide the exams and correct them instead of sending them to Halifax. That can be good, that can also be bad (for us – students…).

Most of the students and parents support the teachers, because for what they do, they get paid too less and also they fight for a better educational situation for us. The teacher provide all our clubs and activities in the afternoon like sports and bands. They are all doing it as a volunteer! They are very dedicated! But now it is getting worse. The students are "suffering" from work-to-rule and some already got tired of it. I can understand them, it's sad that there are no sports and clubs after school, which most of the students hit, even a big basketball was cancelled for it.. Also, there were already demonstrations to support the teachers all over Nova Scotia and often students and parents joined these demonstrations to support them. Me and my host family joined one of these demonstrations too.

In 2014 teachers went on Strike in BC (British Columbia) and it hold for some month. I hope it is not going to be so long for us. As soon as there are News, I am going to post here!