Editorial - Teachers’ strike action impacts us, but it’s needed

Classrooms may be empty for one day next week, but teachers' timetables are packed with all the extras they do to give our tamaraiki a quality education, writes Ilona Hanne. Photo / Unsplash

Opinion:

Next week, if the planned teaching strike action goes ahead, I will be working from home one day.

Like numerous parents around the country I will be faced with the “inconvenience” of having to juggle my work and other commitments around the fact my children won’t be in school for a day.

It may be an inconvenience, but it is one I will bear happily. Because while my children might not be at school on Thursday, we’ve been at school a lot recently.

At the time of writing this column, I was at my daughter’s school last night to listen to her principal and assistant principal explain the intricacies of NCEA for parents. Tonight I will be at her school again, to meet with one of my daughter’s teachers who has been assigned the role of mentor for her. By the time this column is in print, I will also have been at my eldest son’s school, again out of school hours, for a parents’ evening meeting with his Year 13 teachers.

Last week, that same Year 13 son of mine missed two days of school. So did some of his teachers, as they accompanied him and his peers on a two-day leadership event in Rotorua. While my son and his peers doubtless enjoyed the two evenings of pizza and chatting in Rotorua, I suspect their teachers might have preferred to be home with their own teenagers, dogs, cats or whatever, with or without pizza.

My youngest son has just signed up for basketball (it’s guaranteed to be a case of more enthusiasm than skill, but at least he’s reasonably tall I suppose). It takes place out of school hours, but still within my work time so I am going to be unable to help coach (just as well, I have neither enthusiasm nor skill and my height is average even with heels), but sure enough, his teacher will be there and is already busy organising teams, schedules, etc, ready for the start of the season next term.

My daughter plans to audition for the school play. She has been warned it will involve a lot of out of school time rehearsals, etc, meaning while I drop her off to rehearsal (presuming she gets a part) and then merrily head off to grab a coffee, do my weekly supermarket shop or whatever else I feel like doing outside of my work hours on a weekend, her teachers will be at the school, corralling dozens of wanna-be Emma Watsons and probably wondering just when they will get the chance to grab a coffee or do their own supermarket shop.

So my children will miss a day of school due to strike action. But their schools are unquestionably putting the hours and days into their education, thanks to the many dedicated teachers who give up their weekends, evenings, any hope of a social life, to ensure my children - and yours - get the best education possible, with all the extra-curricular bells and whistles attached.

While I am going to have to shuffle my work schedule a bit next week, I will do so willingly, because I appreciate and value the countless hours upon hours my children’s teachers put into their work - well above and beyond their actual hours, to do an amazing job.

Disclaimer: Ilona Hanne is a parent representative on a local school board of trustees. The views contained in this column are entirely her own and should not be taken to express the view of the board as a whole.