The government is not listening to teachers or parents
“The strike action secondary teachers are taking on 15 September is as much about frustration with the Ministry of
Education’s lack of engagement as anything else,” says PPTA president Kate Gainsford.
She said the government had failed to acknowledge a number of concerns secondary teachers have about the quality of
public education in their current collective agreement negotiations.
“Three months of negotiations have yielded almost nothing in the way of constructive engagement. No wonder teachers are
angry.”
“The claim teachers have lodged consists of a range of possible solutions to concerns shared across the sector and the
community. The government should be as concerned as everyone else about recruitment and retention and teachers’
unmanageable workloads – but they’ve showed us scant evidence they care,” she said.
Why wouldn’t a government who had the needs of students and communities at heart be prepared to invest in solutions
around class size and students’ health and safety?”
Why wouldn’t the government be prepared to invest in ways of keeping New Zealand’s highly skilled and experienced
teachers in front of New Zealand classes?”
“The government talks up the importance of infrastructure. It knows schools are an important part of that
infrastructure. So it’s ludicrous that a pay increase that does no more than keep salaries current has to be fought for
while perk-laden politicians label them greedy, overpaid and disconnected with reality.”
“The prime minister’s attempt to dismiss teachers concerns with simplistic sound-bites is a sorry and short-sighted
response.”
ENDS