Teachers discouraged by pay offer

The Government’s latest pay offer to teachers is not enough to address serious education issues and the cost of living crisis, educators say.

Members of the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa union have been holding meetings across the country for the past two weeks to decide whether to accept the Government’s latest offer.

The union and the Government are still negotiating, but teachers believe the latest offer isn’t enough.

In Manawatū , teachers held a meeting at the Palmerston North Leisure Community Centre yesterday to discuss the offer.

Frances Arapere is a resource teacher of Mā ori across Rangitīkei and also chairs Te Haunui Area Council for Manawatū .

She had been to the paid union meetings in Whanganui and Manawatū and told the feeling of being dissatisfied with the offer was widespread among teachers.

‘‘The public service pay offer doesn’t recognise the increase in the cost of living that we’re all having to constantly tackle,’’ she said. ‘‘The offer doesn’t really address a lot of the issues that affect our tamariki.’’

Arapere said the sector needed resourcing for teacher aides and specialist teachers to help with specialist learning support and to recognise the stress that had been placed on teachers.

She had also been dismayed about a Ministry of Education proposal to disestablish 53 resource teacher of Māori roles across the country, which included her.

The ministry had agreed to remove the proposal relating to those roles, but it had still been a stressful time for Arapere.

The ministry’s education workforce hautū (leader), Anna Welanyk, said in a statement: ‘‘We are in continuing negotiations with the union and remain open to discussing all issues.’’

NZEI president Liam Rutherford said teachers were disappointed with the Government offer.

Rutherford said that through the Covid-19 pandemic ‘‘we heard about the value of teachers every day, and teachers were feeling really optimistic’’ going into collective agreement negotiations. However, the overwhelming feedback had been that the offer was ‘‘really, really poor’’.

‘‘Really, it is around pay that doesn’t go backwards [and] manageable workloads so teachers have got the time to give children the support they need.’’

He said the offer meant teachers felt undervalued and there wasn’t sufficient resourcing to address learning needs.

The union also wanted more investment for smaller classroom sizes.

Results of the vote are likely to be known at the weekend.

Principals were also in negotiation over a pay offer and were likely to know the outcome of their vote next week.

Ross Intermediate School principal Wayne Jenkins said the principals’ offer was an insult and did not address any issues relating to equity.