As frustrated as we are with the striking teachers, I don’t blame them, it’s the government who’s dragged the chain here in not resolving it and allowing kids to be pawns in all this.
So far teachers have rejected the latest pay offer, lump sum, and three payrises, as suggested by the Ministry. Teachers say it’s not good enough. They have more strikes planned right up until the end of term. But over the weekend the PPTA said they’d now look at an Employment Relations Authority proposal that they suspend strike action and start independent arbitration.
I can only hope they make a decision on this quickly and that it’s the right decision – to suspend the industrial action.
Obviously the Ministry of Education wants it stopped, and parents and many students want it stopped, but it may mean the Ministry has to step up a little bit more to make it happen. Students don’t deserve all this interrupted learning. And they’re saying so.
I was encouraged by the group of Waikato students who wrote an open letter to Minister Jan Tinetti saying enough is enough. They said “the greatest detriment to our future as New Zealand students is education disruption. While you battle over pay and conditions, students across the country are being sent home. Yet again our learning - despite all the rhetoric to the opposite - is happily being used as a pawn for political and union conflict”, they wrote. Good on them. Dozens of student leaders from Waikato schools signed it.
They also pointed out that ‘as strike action continues, the Education Minister and her staff are contradicting the entire purpose of their jobs - to ensure the education of the country’s children and young people.’ They said, “We, as a student body, are in our fourth year of disruptions. We have not had it easy. However, we have compromised and done our very best, as we knew that the past three years were out of anyone’s control. This time, we do have control. You have control and right now this is a change we can make. Why are you putting us, the students, in the middle of a discussion where we are your focus..”
They went on to say that as strike action goes on, ‘the Education Minister and her staff are contradicting the entire purpose of their jobs - to ensure the education of the country’s children and young people.’ So I take my hat off to them for telling it like it is. They have a right to be angry and they have a right to voice it. I only hope the Minister was listening.
Because they’re right. They are contradicting the whole purpose of their jobs. The kids are over it. They’re knee deep in internals, they’re stressed, they’re fed up, they want it over. If the government can’t see the damage this is doing, then they’ve got their head in the sand.
Let’s hope independent arbitration is agreed on and can work towards a good outcome here, that doesn’t involve more time off school for hard working students who are just trying to get their NCEA credits, and get a bit of learning in.
Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.
4 comments:
As you well know we as citizens are all pawns in the political game.
That said it certainly is a breath of very fresh aired thinking when even the young students go hmmmmm.
Perhaps Mr Hipkins now realises the folly of shutting down charter schools, which would have provided a nice bargaining lever.
My husband was a secondary teacher in STEM subjects. He left teaching because he could get twice the salary immediately outside school. He was also stressed by badly behaving students who can make a teacher's life absolute hell. He had post traumatic stress syndrome for decades after he left.
Please put the blame in the right place. Principles have been asking for decades from the ministry for more disciplinary methods they can use. Many people have dedicated their lives to improving literacy and numeracy standards only to be ignored.The prevailing philosophy dominant in our schools of child -centered education, has not only has destroyed academic standards but also the climate in classrooms particularly at low decile Colleges.
Our entire education system is a disaster and I would not recommend anyone goes College teaching unless they believe in charitable missions.
If some one thinks they are worth more and can get better conditions then grow a set resign and go out and get the better position, when enough do that things will have to change. These teachers are using young students as their pawns and that is not on.We have talked to a number of students who are totally stressed out to the point that there will be mental breakdowns and suicides if this continues, when that happens both the government and teachers will have those students blood on their hands.IS A FEW MORE DOLLARS WORTH THAT? One other question are these teachers getting paid while on strike? They should not be.
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