Voices ResourcesA website for the worldwide community around the journal Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy

Recently I received a newsletter from the parents' union of public
nursery schools. My children attend one of the nursery schools represented by the union. The lead article of the
newsletter was about privatization of public nursery schools due to
the cost performance problem. Subsequently, my husband and I had a discussion about "personnel expenses" in general. We were left with an unresolved question. In this essay I will share the controversy
we had, and ask for the readers' opinions.

The newsletter's content is summarized as follows:
Due to the long recession and the economic crisis, many local
governments are now promoting the privatization of public nursery
schools. According to the article, a public nursery school
costs almost twice the price of a private nursery school This difference comes from the age and the
labor costs of nursery teachers: The average age of the public
nursery school teacher is 42 years old, while the private is 27 year's
old. In short, the private school teachers' salary does not increase
after 30 years old as the public's does, and many of them quit their
jobs when they become 30 years old. Then the school hires younger teachers whose
salary is lower, which contributes to the cost savings. The government
insists that by privatization, they can increase the number of nursery
schools and also the service hours. However, the article points out
that it will in result older teachers' losing their jobs, as well as
the children's losing their chances to have experienced
teachers, which might cause the lowering of the educational quality.

This article touched my heart deeply, because I am 42 years old, the
age average of public nursery school teachers. And teachers and
therapists have a common nature in that our work focuses on the growth processes of human beings. So I
could not help but compare their situation to my own: One day my
manager might say to me: "Well, you cost too much and our budget is
tight. We suggest that you leave the job and we will hire the
younger ones whose salary is less. It will result in better
service for the clients." Just imagining this, two kinds of sorrow
filled my heart: the sorrow of not being respected for my
professional/personal quality, and the sorrow to see the destruction
of my value for human-related professions. I feel that I have better
vision on the field and on human beings in general than when I was 27
years old (actually this was the age when I first started to study about this
area). Perhaps I have less physical energy now but more wisdom and
clearer vision. I think this growth means a lot to my clients, even though it
costs more financially. Although it does not show immediately, I believe that
the personal growth along with the experiences are crucial for the
professions to help others grow, such as teachers, therapists, and so
on. However, society tends to regard it too expensive!?

Turning our eyes to the Japanese music therapy field, I have been
realizing a slight change in the job situation. Recently, at least 3
of my students were hired as a full-time music therapist in nursing
homes. It is wonderful but at the same time surprising, given the
situation that there are many older/experienced MTs around, while they
are fresh from the school with no professional experiences and are not
even certified as MT yet. I guess what attracted the employers would
be that they have good young hearts and some knowledge (and
volunteering experiences) about music therapy, and of course, their
salary can be low. When I imagine if they would hire me or not, the answer
is probably no, because my experience and titles will not match their
needs. In other words, many of these new MT positions are not
standardized with high quality and potential which is reasonably
costly. This comparison between the MTs and the public nursery school teachers
struck me as quite compelling.

As a parent I regard the nursery school teacher's role as very high. My
husband also always respects what they do for our children. However,
when I showed the above article to him, his opinion was an unexpected
one. He said: This attitude "it is very understandable
and of course we would like to have as much budget as possible for our
children. But to me there is too great a difference in ages between the
public and the private, and in that sense the privatization can be a
reasonable way to save money in this economic crisis. In any
company or corporation, the personnel system is a "pyramid." If every
employees is promoted along with their ages, the personal costs will
become prohibitive for the system, and the chances for the younger
staff will be lost. The older staff should become 'a few commanders'
whose role is to make many younger staff work effectively."

In terms of cost performance, I understand his position, and I know that the
therapy/education professions are not the exception to this
financial perspective. Still I feel resistant to the theory he
described. First of all, as a therapist I know how it is crucial for
the human-related professions to have experience and maturity in both
professional and personal life. Such abilities have no goal throughout
life, and especially for the younger ages the path has just begun.
Second, this ability is personal and autonomic in its nature,
and not well-suited to a "pyramid" system. Every teacher/therapist is a
complete existence as a human-being who builds the original
relationship with clients/children. The more experienced older ones
could "supervise" (in a deeper sense) the younger ones, but cannot
"command" what they should do. I want my children to meet the
teachers of different ages. Third, teachers/therapists
professions cannot, or at least cannot easily be analyzed with numbers
such as "expense" and "age". We need first to discuss what quality we
want for such professions in detail, then how much it costs, how we
can save, and who must be employed.

Depending on culture, history, and political/economic systems,
people must think differently about the personnel expenses for
education/therapy professions. We would like to hear different
opinions from the Voices readers.

How to cite this page

Ikuno, Rika (2003) The Age of Human-related Professions and the Personnel Cost: Is it Too Expensive?. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 12, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=fortnightly-columns/2003-age-human-related-professions-and-personnel-cost-it-too-expensive