We teachers are working during this pandemic and supervising the children in our care

Motivated by the forensic journalism of Sam McBride and the perceptive comments by Alex Kane, I thought that I would support a local paper.

I did not want the tacky tabloid judgments of many of the national UK papers which have their regular targets such as premier league footballers or more generally the overpaid and underworked employees in the bloated public sector.

What have I found? The News Letter at times seems to be on the backs of the teaching profession whose recent pay award was approved without question and whose members are receiving their salaries when schools are closed.

The pay award in respect of four years was four years in the making, reflective of zero increases for most of the years since the 2008 financial crash.

While there was industrial action this did not directly affect the core business of the profession; teaching children in the classroom. So, the impression conveyed or buried in two articles that teachers were handed this on a plate is false.

With respect to the current position of teachers, I have to declare an interest lest I appear biased: my wife and I are both in the profession and working from home.

Google Classroom and Zoom are in regular use, administrative tasks are ongoing and all colleagues are supervising key workers’ children on a rota.

Most important, the children in our care are being taught.

Of course, I am not going to defend every member of the profession. We have all been taught by less than adequate teachers as you, as a newspaper, have had, no doubt, to endure less effective reporters.

So, I am not saying that education is off limits for the media.

However, any ill-informed and unreasonable comment should stop.

Get an education correspondent and ‘Do your homework!’

Harry Millar, Richhill