Teaching problems — they won’t go away
Only those who are teachers, have been teachers or are married to a teacher have any real concept of how hard the job is and how much harder it has become over the past decade or so.
In spite of many assurances and promises over the years classes have remained too big and the number of extra non-teaching related tasks required of teachers has continued to grow.
Teachers are faced with a growing list of serious behavioural problems from many children from dysfunctional and poverty stricken homes and they have few effective methods to deal with the problem.
Drugs, violence and dangerous weapons can now be found in too many secondary and even primary schools. Teachers are also expected to be counsellors and, in a growing number of cases, almost surrogate parents. Most teachers have accepted these developments as part of the job but, as each new initiative and education programme is introduced, they bring separate funding packages which require separate reporting and auditing requirements to the point that more teachers have left the profession than have joined it since about 2005.
With all these added requirements some teachers do not have enough time away from the classroom for planning classes, marking work and dealing with the myriad of problems and issues that arise in a normal school day.
The workload of those dedicated individuals who have remained in teaching has now reached breaking point and teachers nationwide have broken with tradition and taken tough industrial action.
As a community we are entitled to ask, how on earth did it ever come to this? And there are no easy answers.
We have known for some time that teachers were struggling under a growing workload and that is the basis of the grievance. It is not about more money but about more teachers to share that workload and that has also been known for some time.
The situation has become so serious that, for first time in New Zealand’s history there is professional unity between primary and secondary school teacher unions.
PPTA Waikato regional committee representative Vanessa Tupp put the case very clearly when the problem was shared by both secondary and primary teachers which also shared the same goal of wanting to create the best learning environment for children.
She was also very clear that the fault did not lie entirely with the Labour led coalition Government and it had taken a decade of underfunding and neglect for education to reach the current situation. The extent of that problem can be gauged by the significant difference between what the two teachers’ unions are asking for and what the Government has offered. The ministry’s best offer was costed at almost $700 million while the total cost of what the unions have asked for is about $2.5 billion, a shortfall of about $1.8billion. The ministry’s offer included a new top pay bracket and the partial removal of a cap on qualifications for some teachers from 2020 but that only seemed to anger teachers more as it failed to address the real issue of too few teachers and classes which are too big and expected to grow in the next few years.
Comparing teachers with other state funded sectors is an exercise in futility as there is no other profession to compare them with and the teachers themselves have made it clear their claims are not about relativity but about rescuing our once world leading public education system from a fatal crisis.
Already we have some schools that have been unable to recruit new teachers to replace those who are leaving the profession or retiring.
It takes at least three years study to become a qualified teacher and there have been opportunities and advice on how to make that study more attractive with reduced fees and interest free loans but none of those suggestions were ever seriously considered.
Recruiting qualified teachers from overseas also brings problems only those in the profession really appreciate. Even teachers from English speaking countries have to learn the many nuances and subtle mores which make up the unique New Zealand society. School children are unable to articulate these differences and faced with a teacher from another country, no matter how well qualified or dedicated, many children simply get left behind, particularly in large classes. New Zealand children need New Zealand teachers, particularly in the first few years of formal education.
It is perhaps fortunate that this long simmering problem has finally blown up at the end of the school year. That gives all parties several weeks over the Christmas break to thrash out a plan that will work for the Government, teachers and most importantly for students. That time should not be wasted.