Jo Raphael: Support the teachers who support our children

OPINION:

We didn’t have many teachers’ strikes when I was at school.

There was only one that I could find - July 1994, when teachers and principals downed tools and marched to demand support for pay parity for primary and secondary teachers.

I don’t remember it, but I’m sure 13-year-old me would have rejoiced, not fully understanding, nor, let’s face it, caring about the implications and conditions that sent my educators to the picket lines.

Teachers finally achieved their goal in 1998. My formative high school years during that time flew by relatively uninterrupted.

Teachers strike in Bethlehem, Tauranga, in May 2019.

Skip ahead to May 2019, when conditions have deteriorated and pay has not kept up with growth and the number of responsibilities teachers now have.

They rejected an offer of $1.2 billion over four years - which would have brought them into the top 20 per cent of income earners.

Fifty thousand walked off the job, affecting more than 800,000 students and their families.

This is only nine months after a 30,000-strong teachers’ strike in August 2018 closed about three-quarters of the country’s state primary schools.

Then came Covid.

This is a whole new playing field.

In my view, Covid merely highlighted and exacerbated inadequacies in the system that were already there, as well as contributing to other issues students are now facing after having these learning interruptions.

Secondary schools are facing a teacher shortage, with the PPTA (Post Primary Teachers’ Association) saying retention rates have dropped 2.9 per cent in the past year.

Teachers of specialist subjects are in hot demand.

This could be bad news for this generation of young people, who need a strong educational foundation for the careers they want.

Tomorrow, PPTA and NZEI (New Zealand Educational Institute) union members are striking.

NZEI Te Riu Roa ki Waiariki Bay of Plenty area council chairwoman Andrea Andresen says teachers are not valued.

“I want an education system that values and supports all our students to be the best they can be. This requires a system which values and supports teachers to be the best they can be.”

My colleague Zizi Sparks wrote yesterday that she supports the teachers in their strike this week, and I also feel strongly about this issue.

Their demands are, in my view, not unreasonable.

The reasons behind their frustrations are altruistic. They say the conditions are limiting how they’re able to educate our children.

And to me, that’s the bottom line.

We should be supporting the teachers who support the students.

Why should students be punished for the systemic issues in our education system?

It’s imperative these issues are sorted - investment in our future generations is not rocket science.