Ministerial taskforce holds first meeting today

The Ministerial Taskforce on Secondary Teacher Remuneration is meeting for the first time today to examine issues relating to remuneration for secondary teachers, Education Minister Trevor Mallard said today.

“The Taskforce’s main objective is to ensure a supply of high quality, appropriately qualified secondary teachers in state and integrated schools who will improve the learning outcomes of all students,” Trevor Mallard said.

“The Taskforce will develop a strategic longer term perspective on the issues facing the teacher sector over the next decade. More specifically it will examine and report on how the government can address wagepaths and the impact on remuneration of workload, teacher supply and demand, curriculum delivery, qualifications and other directly related issues.

The proposal for the Taskforce arose during last year’s bargaining with the PPTA as a way of taking “off-line” a number of issues which could not be dealt with during an industrial bargaining process. It was considered that these issues needed more in-depth examination and consultation than could be provided at that time or in an industrial dispute forum.

The Taskforce will consult widely with stakeholders through regional visits and by calling for submissions.

The Taskforce will be chaired by Dame Margaret Bazley and is expected to report to the Minister of Education by 31 October 2003. Other members are PPTA senior vice-president Jen McCutcheon, PPTA junior vice-president Debbie Te Waiti, Epsom Girls Grammar principal Margaret Bendall, New Zealand School Trustees Association general manager Ray Newport, and two Ministry of Education representatives.

The report will inform the parties involved in the next bargaining round which will begin before the expiry of the Secondary Teachers Collective Agreement on 30 June 2003.

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