2 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
'Frustration starting to kick in': High schools close as teachers go on strike
Image: RNZ
Thousands of secondary school teachers are striking on Wednesday, over stalled collective agreement negotiations.
The action has forced many high schools to close.
The Post Primary Teachers' Association says the government's offer of a 1 percent pay rise every year for three years is the lowest in a generation.
Higher salaries were needed to attract and retain teachers, especially amid NCEA reforms, the union said.
It's planning more industrial action that will involve schools rostering students home from the middle of next month, if the negotiations make no progress.
Education Minister Erica Stanford says progress was made in recent mediation, but she could not provide details.
'Frustration starting to kick in'
Public Service Minister Judith Collins has apologised and said she mixed up her messaging after earlier claiming high school teachers with 10 years' experience could earn $147,000.
One of the teachers baffled by Collins' initial claim was Kiwibank's Local Hero of the Year, maths educator Subash Chandar K, also known as Infinity Plus One.
Subash Chandar K says teachers love being in the classroom but they also have a lot of extra demands piled on to them. Photo: Supplied
He told First Up he was earning $103,000 and wondered if he was being "short-changed".
Chandar believed Collins might have been referring to principals or associate principals with at least 10 years' experience. One of his colleagues reviewed 1006 teaching jobs being advertised and found only two would have attracted a salary of more than $140,000, Chandar said.
It was frustrating to know that backbench MPs were on salaries of $163,000, he said.
He described days beginning at 8am and ending with department or staff meetings plus meetings with families.
"Our students are so much more diverse now in terms of their learning and we need to support these students and sometimes we need to meet with whanau to come up with plans for the best ways to support them."
As well, there was work to take home to mark and parent/teacher meetings at night.
On top of that, were school camps and extra curricular activities such as kapa haka.
Teachers were also adjusting to curriculum changes.
"Most teachers love being in the classroom ... but it's all these extra things that are added on that is actually devaluing what we're doing."
Extra things were being piled on to teachers but the pay was being kept at the same level.
"That's where the frustration is starting to kick in."
