STRIKE! NOW IT'S HIGH SCHOOLS
A failure to ease workload pressures and fix a chronic teacher shortage could see secondary teachers join their primary school colleagues on the picket line.
Contract negotiations between the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) and the Education Ministry began Tuesday, with union leaders declining to rule out strike action.
The union is seeking a 15 per cent pay rise over one year, plus other demands.
PPTA president Jack Boyle couldn’t give a time frame for the negotiations but said the union’s focus was on ‘‘seeking a correction to a decade of underfunding and neglect’’.
The PPTA was also seeking more non-contact time for teachers.
‘‘We can’t rule in or out industrial action because we are teacher led. If we end up in a position where there is an offer of what the Government can do, then we’ll take that back out and discuss it among teachers and that decision will be up to them,’’ Boyle said.
Primary school teachers and principals have already given notice of strike action on August 15 after rejecting a pay offer from the Government.
Boyle said the PPTA was alarmed at a 40 per cent drop off in teacher trainee numbers in recent years. Of those trainees who end up teaching, about 40 per cent leave the profession within five years, Boyle said.
Findings from an annual survey of secondary school principals, released in June, found about a third of advertised teaching jobs had no suitable applicants, while eight per cent of schools had no relievers.
Matamata College principal Alan Munro said a shortage of teachers and relief teachers was placing stress on his staff.
Student opportunities and professional development for staff had to be put on hold on occasions because there weren’t enough relief teachers to release staff from teaching, Munro said.
‘‘I’m in a situation now where I’ve hired a couple of people who were typically available for day relief into fixed term positions just to cover the holes in the school,’’ he said.
A teaching vacancy which previously attracted 10 to 15 applicants might now draw one job seeker.
‘‘I’ve got a technology position that I had to advertise four times and I’ve only just been able to fill it by going through an educational employment agency and getting someone from overseas,’’ Munro said.
Strike action was imminent unless the current negotiations saw drastic plans and improvements implemented to
‘‘We can’t rule in or out industrial action because we are teacher led.’’ Jack Boyle Post Primary Teachers’ Association president
‘‘The biggest thing a school can do in terms of student learning is to have high quality teachers in front of the students. James Morris New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council chair
address teacher conditions, including pay, recruitment, retention and teacher training, he said.
‘‘The flipside is there are some stunning teachers who are doing amazing stuff and teaching is a fantastic job,’’ Munro said.
New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council chairman James Morris said the teacher shortage was biting hard nationwide.
A greater focus needed to be given to attracting young people into teaching as well as retain those in the profession – neither of which could be remedied through quick fixes.
‘‘Clearly pay is part of that in terms of making the profession attractive. But what we see in schools when we do surveys is workloads are a big part of that as well,’’ Morris said.
He hoped the negotiations would address schools’ legitimate needs.
‘‘In the end, schools need someone there standing in front of their classes. There are compromises you can make in terms of combining classes and having teachers teach outside their expertise.
‘‘But the biggest thing a school can do in terms of student learning is to have high quality teachers in front of the students. The best teachers make the biggest difference.’’