Are Teachers Obliged to Supervise Students in the Cafeteria Essay - 7

Are Teachers Obliged to Supervise Students in the Cafeteria - Essay Example The teachers filed the grievances for these new assignments. According to the employers, there was standard management rights’ clause in the parties’ collective bargaining agreement which they had invoked in the present case to contain rowdy behaviour of the students, during the lunch break. The union, on the other hand, asserted that cafeteria supervision was mentioned in the agreement for the secondary teachers only and due to lack of any past practice, assigning these duties to the elementary teachers was against the contract. Yes, Union’s claim is right. There is a contractual basis, expressed in language because the contract mentions the supervision duties for the secondary teachers and not the elementary school teachers. No, there is no past evidence of elementary school teachers burdened with the added responsibilities of supervising cafeteria during the lunch break. There was also no inclusion of such in their job description as against the fact that cafeteria supervision was included in the agreement for secondary teachers. The union also claimed that the lunchtime was used by the teachers for various other educational activities like meeting parents, remediation, preparing and planning students’ performance enhancing activities etc. that were designed for the overall development of the students. Cafeteria supervision would restrict these extra activities that are an essential part of teaching aids and measures. Hence, extra duties are legally and ethically wrong. As an arbitrator, I would ensure that the elementary teachers were not burdened with the extra duty of cafeteria supervision because children in the elementary school require more educational aids and teachers-parental interaction for improved results. The roles and responsibilities of a teacher are multidimensional.   The teachers often serve as role models for their students so they need to be very meticulous and at the same time, he/she should be extremely knowledgeable so as to command respect from their students.