Primary school teacher at Waitotara School, Alison Collier, said teachers weren’t getting the credit they deserved and the profession was undervalued.
“I burnt out and I had to take three terms off, I took two terms off that were unpaid, and so I’m very aware of my wellbeing,” she said.
Principal of Turakina Primary School, Leigh McKay, said her workdays began at 8am and finished at 10pm, and she works through the weekends.
“As a teaching principal I work my full principal job all day, every day, and then I plan and organise and teach half of the week.”
Brunswick School principal Jane Corcoran said it was wrong that some teachers are paid more than principals and that primary schools were staffed 30 per cent less than secondary schools.
“We’re losing quality principals all over the country, they’re just saying I’m done, I’m out, I can’t do it any more.”
The Principals Association presented an open letter to Whanganui MP Steph Lewis’ office addressed to Minister of Education Jan Tinetti.
Corcoran said 60 per cent of principals were in their first five years of the job because experienced colleagues were walking out the door as they couldn’t do it any more.
At the Majestic Square protest, Whanganui High School careers adviser and teacher Paul Keene said young teachers and graduates were not seeing teaching as a first-choice career.
“If we want to recruit and maintain a high quality teaching workforce then we need to remunerate them properly and have conditions of work that attract and keep them in the profession.”
Primary school teacher at Te Kura o Kokohuia School, Sharnarose Pehi, said teachers don’t strike to inconvenience parents and most don’t actually want to have the day off.
Pehi said there needed to be better learning environments for tamariki and more teacher aides in classrooms.
“We teach our tamariki to stand up for what they believe in and be brave so it’s about time we start modelling that.”
Commerce teacher at Whanganui Collegiate, Mark Wilson, sat behind a school desk at 8am on the intersection of London St and Grey St to protest.
Wilson said the pay rise offer from the Government was “disappointing” at 3 per cent because it did not match inflation at 7.3 per cent.
“One of our teachers left last year and he’s earning over $40,000 more than we are in Australia. It’s a bit scary really, and he’s an awesome teacher and we just keep losing really good teachers to Australia.”
The Education Minister told a crowd of striking teachers at Parliament “we will do better”.
“I actually want to say very, very sincerely a big thank you for standing up for the kids in this country for standing up for your conditions.”
Jan Tinetti said she had been in the job for six weeks and was committed to doing better.
She said today was their “day of action” and tomorrow they would be back at the negotiating table.
