Rotorua secondary school teachers gathered today to strike against the 1% pay rise offer from the Government.
Bay of Plenty regional Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) chairwoman Kim Wilson said the “sizeable” gathering of teachers striking at the Pukuatua St and Old Taupō Rd intersection were heartened to have received “overwhelming” public support.
“The quality of our public education system is being undermined through being under-resourced,” she said.
“We are not currently funded to meet the needs of all students. Funding is going to the wrong places.”
She said $153 million had been taken out of the public education budget and set aside for charter schools, which could have provided an additional guidance counsellor in every school.
Wilson said teachers were choosing to leave the profession because of the extra workload being placed on them through the underfunding of resources for students, and the constantly changing curriculum and assessment methods.
“We are more than 800 secondary teachers short of full staffing, meaning some students are being taught by teachers who do not specialise in their subject.”
Wilson said teachers’ working conditions were students’ learning conditions.
“It is incredibly difficult to attract and retain teachers when we have been losing ground relative to the median wage since the 1990s.
“We are not just asking for a pay rise, we have asked for provisions in the collective agreement to meet these students’ needs, such as pastoral allowances, to roll out community liaison roles, and cultural kaitiaki allowances.”
Education Minister Erica Stanford asked the PPTA in an announcement yesterday to return to the table in good faith.
“You can’t negotiate when you’re sitting at the table by yourself, and that’s what we’ve found over the last little while.”
She said the Government and the union had just had another round of negotiations, and there had recently been some “good faith moves” by the PPTA, but would not go into further detail.
“All I can say is there have been some more good faith moves on behalf of the PPTA, which is really good to see.”
Western Bay of Plenty secondary school teachers also took part in the strike.
About 500 PPTA members marched from Red Square in Tauranga’s city centre to a picket line at the Cameron Rd and Elizabeth St intersection.
Teachers at the march described the pay offer as “unfair”, “appalling”, a “pay cut” and “the worst pay offer in a generation”.
Mount Maunganui College teacher Sam Oldham said the Government had been “completely unreasonable” with its offer of a 1% increase per year for three years.
“We’re out here because we’ve been given one of the worst pay offers in a generation, and if we want to have a high-quality education system and public schools that are successful and effective, we need a teaching workforce that’s well paid and well respected and well resourced to do that,” he said.
“And we can’t do that with the Government’s latest pay offer.”
Oldham said a more appropriate offer would be 4% each year for three years.
He said large numbers of teachers were leaving to teach in Australia, where they could get paid tens of thousands of dollars more, often with cheaper costs of living.
“We want to be competitive with Australia and other jobs in New Zealand.”