Terribly sorry, but it's time for a rant.

So, I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get a job teaching. I have applied for 19 teaching positions, and been granted exactly zero interviews. With this in mind, I have been considering going back to university to retrain in early childhood. There is a very well developed early childhood system in place in New Zealand, with a curriculum from 0-5 years. The vast majority of centres are government funded, and there is a huge push to have qualified teachers (BEd) in these centres. The more qualified teachers, the more funding. Also, centres that do not have 80% of their staff qualified by 2012 will lose ALL funding. So there is a need for qualified teachers at that age. And I really like working in early childhood. I've been doing relieving, and I always come home happy and relaxed after each day.

Here's the rant: I need to go back to university for a year to get qualified. Not a huge deal, really. The part that really pisses me off? Anyone, with any degree, only needs to take 1 year of studies. I worked yesterday with a guy who had a BA in media studies before going back for 1 year. A three year BA, mind you. I have a four year BEd, which included classes in early childhood development and early childhood psychology, and I will have to take the exact same classes and course load as someone who took three years of film classes or design classes. This is what pisses me off. It seems completely unfair that my degree is basically invalid if I want to teach anything other than primary. Now, I know that life is not fair, and I know that one year is not that big a deal. But with many centres poised to fall short of the 80% target (which was originally set for this year, and had to be pushed back as 38% of centres would have lost all funding), you would think that the ministry of education would be trying to make it easier for teachers to get qualified. I would think that my experience would count for something. I would think that my education would make me slightly more qualified that a BA or a BSc.

Rant over.