Did they sign away the power? Will we enter a new age of depoliticized teachers? Hard to say. What can be said is that of the 25,000 teachers who made it to union voting stations nearly 95% of them voted to accepted the government’s five year plan for teachers.

Nearly 85% of 32,000 teachers who voted voted to strike last September.
About 30,000 teachers voted 77% in favour of going back to work on October 23rd, 2005. And while nearly 95% of those who voted last Friday voted to accepted, the actual number of teachers voting declined to 25,000 of the more than 40,000 eligible teachers.

While many will sigh with relief, the declining numbers of teachers who actually voted suggests (though it doesn’t prove) that there is a large number of teachers who are not particularly happy with the way things turned out.