When he was asked about next week’s mega strike, he washed his hands: "Ultimately that's a matter for the Ministry of Education and the teachers to work through."
Technically? Yes. Really though? No.
The buck stops with him and cabinet.
The Ministry of Education can do what it can do with the money it has, and he and Cabinet decides how much money it has.
So, he calls the shots.
And he better bump up teachers’ pay in a big way.
Do you know how much a school teacher earns when they start out? $51K.
Do you know how much someone who stacks shelves full time on the minimum wage earns? $47K.
And yet —and no disrespect to the teenager stacking shelves— they don’t need a student loan to land that job. They don’t have to go home and prepare for tomorrow’s class, or prepare for the school outing, or learn the new curriculum. When they leave work they leave work.
And yet a teacher has all of that extra mental load and only gets another $1.90 an hour for it.
The Labour Government has made a real point of showing how much they value low skilled work by hiking the minimum wage by 44% in 6 years.
They haven’t hiked teachers’ pay by that.
Which can only lead you to think they don’t value teachers as much, because if they did, they would raise that pay.
Imagine if they’d hiked primary teachers’ pay by 44%?
I'd like to see the same enthusiasm from this government in raising teachers’ pay as they’ve demonstrated in raising the minimum wage.
And teachers should accept nothing less than a massive pay increase.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.
8 comments:
Maybe, for once, they've decided to index pay to performance.
Academic achievement plummeting, truancy skyrocketing.
Hardly inspires confidence...or a pay rise!
But if that's the case then it's Labour shooting the messenger, because the above and more are directly due to the Ministry of Education's failed Maori-obsessed policies which has degraded the hole education system.
Now, who was Minister of Education for the last 5 years, until very recently?
So you are advocating for an increase in salary when the standard of education has been dropping? I fail to see the logic in that. Why should anyone be rewarded for lowering the level of production? When students arrive at secondary without the literacy and numeracy skills required their teachers have obviously failed at their job. Teachers should have to raise their skill levels to achieve a better result for the students first.
Unfortunately,increasing teachers' pay will do little to improve our shocking standards and truancy.
These problems are related to entrenched educational ideologies,from decades ago.
They have produced teaching methods that are ineffective. Teachers cannot be blamed for this but rather the academic and political world who latched onto them
The aim of these ideologies was actually never to produce knowledgeable,literate, numerate nor independent thinkers. Teachers were instead to be influencers into a largely socialist viewpoint including more recently indoctrination into cancel culture and the transgender craze. This corruption of education has accelerated in the last five tears.
My wife a traditional oriented teacher, of IT, physics and maths left teaching.
The poor pay combined with the distasteful philosophies drove her away.
Many studies have shown students from poor backgrounds are attracted to schools where the discipline and pedagogy are more traditional in style.
I don’t support pay rises for teachers who simply do what they are told - Matauranga Maori, te reo Maori, incendiary fake history etc. where is the leadership? In a very short while the children who have been feed rubbish will be voting (in presumably good faith) but by which time the rubbish is embedded and thereafter self perpetuating. How long before the school kids of today vote for Aotearoa because that is the propoganda they have been fed.
Yes, teachers should be paid more, but they need to produce results. l'm appalled at the proposed education 'reset' and yet Prof. Rata's open letter to the PM has received...silence. If teachers aren't prepared to speak out against this proposed nonsence, then they are part of the problem and I, for one, will not support them earning more for, in effect, achieving less.
primary teachers are not allowed (or even expected) to teach. they are expected to be babysitters, therapists, surrogate mothers (mostly), and box-checkers so that the school can get more ORS funding.
the problem cannot be addressed unless there is a basic screening at the point of entry. yes, education should be a right, but it should also be considered a privilege. when parents only expect their kids to be fed, clothed and taken care of for a few hours a day, we are allowing schools to be a proxy for free daycare.
Oh p-lease! You know everyone must all be earning so much these days. Way more mmm....I think I need a pay raise. Yes I do. I do far more than stacking shelves and I have over thirty years exp. I am good at my jpb...fat chance I'd get much more though as my employee is finding it tough out there in the market place. They've only been at it for thirty odd years, but my God business has been shrinking and people ain't spending like they used to over the last 5 years. Times are tough and getting tougher. But I haven't had a raise in over 5 years. I suppose you like to wear nice clothes Heather. They don't come cheap. Yes, I will ask tomorrow! And I want back pay too.
Please get a grip on the situation.
Fact of life, we can't all be rich and have all the things we want. I'd like it too if I were a TV personality reporting on daily events or a journalist or a radio show host. But I am not as sole as that. I suppose they get paid well supported by the govt. or bailed out every so often. Easy to expect a decent standard of living from the govt. without any qualms.
The situation is serious and will be so for a long time to come with impending food shortages at exorbitant prices. Fruit and vegetables? Eggs? A nice crisp Sauvignon Blanc? A streak? Some nice bread and some cheese? Getting too expensive for a lot more people now Heather, reality check.
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