Specialist staff strike
PSYCHOLOGISTS, speech language therapists and other learning support specialists who work in schools, made themselves heard around the Dunedin CBD yesterday as part of NZEI strike action.
About 30 union members, who are on different contracts from those of primary and intermediate teachers and principals, rallied outside the Ministry of Education offices in Moray Pl yesterday morning, before moving to the lower Octagon in the afternoon.
The event was one of 18 held from Whangarei to Invercargill.
NZEI national executive member and ministry special education adviser Byron Sanders, of Dunedin, said the group provided specialist itinerant support to the increasing number of children with the highest learning needs in schools and early childhood education centres in Dunedin.
He said they wanted more support for their huge caseloads and an improvement in the pay offer from the ministry.
‘‘The members’ vote [to strike] was a strong one, and a clear indication of the anger felt about the ministry’s offer to them of a 2% pay increase on the day of ratification and a further 2% on March 1, 2019.’’
He said the ministry employed about 850 learning support specialists, including educational psychologists, early intervention teachers, advisers on deaf children, kaitakawaenga, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech language therapists and special education advisers.
There are also the specialists who go into schools to support pupils, staff and communities after a tragedy.
‘‘We want to ensure the ministry gets a clear message that we need to be valuing children with additional needs, and in order to do that we need to ensure that the staff here are remunerated so that we can recruit and retain those professionals, and also have the resources to support those children.’’