This started with me looking to combine my current qualifications as a teacher, with my hopeful future qualification within the realm of the criminal justice system. Degree #4 and I’m still looking at piss poor opportunities.
The education level of prisoners is poor. The most recent survey by Her Majesty’s Prison Service was for the year 2019-2020 and reported over half of the inmates who engaged with education within prisons in the UK were working at Maths and Literacy level below a GCSE.
Education has never been so important. Yet the role to educate prison innmates isn’t exactly enticing. From a teacher point of view, Ā£29k a year isn’t worth getting out of bed. Except it’s the average salary for a working individual. But that doesn’t make me lazy. That makes me realistic and pissed off.
Just to compare. If you qualify for maximum benefits (housing/income etc etc), you could get Ā£1100-1200 a month for doing absolutely nothing. If you declare you live with your mum and actually live with your baby mumma in a council flat, the benefits the two of you could rake in would amount to around Ā£2700 a month. Whichever way you try to spin it, a family where the mum stays at home would be better off just living off the state entirely, than anyone getting a job.
And that’s a QUALIFIED position.
Let’s not look at unskilled labor. Is there any wonder people don’t want to work? What’s the point?
I don’t even blame people anymore. They were sold a lie, just like me. Work hard, get a job. Except it’s not like that, is it?
Work hard. Work harder. Get some job somewhere. Each year get paid less than inflation. Unless you get lucky and you have a middle class (ish) parent die on you.
Quite frankly, nothing is going to get better. And the more we are pitted against each other, fighting over scraps, the more pointless it all seems.
I don’t have any answers for this one. None I’m willing to admit to anyway. Good luck and care and all that, perhaps š¤
FaerieFalls 