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The rolling strikes being planned by members of the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) over the poor offer made by the Education Ministry are right and just.
Again, I hear the usual complaints. Teachers are greedy. They are asking for more than the average worker. No one has gained a pay rise over the last two years. Secondary teachers have been treated generously compared to other public servants. The litany of lies propagated by the Education Minister Anne Tolley and her ministry industrial relations lackeys go on unchallenged.
Well, it is true that teachers are paid on average around $71,000. However, according to a teacher who emailed National Radio's Morning Report today, that is only an average only as many teachers (including him or herself) are not paid that much at all. After all, a graduate teacher starts out on $37,000 a year! That's criminal when you think that most graduates leave university with a burdensome debt already hanging around their necks!
As for their asking more than the average worker, I would say that many teachers work exceedingly hard. Some people tend to think that teachers work between 8.30am and 3.00pm and get stacks of holidays and breaks in between. The reality is different in that teachers not only teach but also have to deal with high administrative workloads (mainly NCEA-related assessments), prepare teaching schedules often weeks in advance, undertake extra duties like lunchtime and break duty to ensure student safety, and assess/mark students work in a timely manner. Often forgotten too (even by some parents) is the effort that teachers make to facilitate extra-curricular activities like sports teams and cultural clubs. This is often in out-of-school time and at weekends, which are times when they could be doing things with their own families.
Given all that and the huge role they do play in shaping the young minds of tomorrow, they should be paid what they are truly worth. While I acknowledge the hardship this will place parents and students under at this time of year, especially with exams looming, I say that teachers have resorted to using the one critical weapon in their armoury - the strike weapon - to make their point. I would say that with inflation looking to go over 4 percent with the recent rise in GST, teachers and, in fact, all workers deserve a decent pay rise this year. If all workers joined unions (like most teachers do) and pushed for higher wages through that route, then everyone would be better off. It's the bosses who play off one worker against another and this impacts on collective worker solidarity. In many cases, teachers work 50-60 hour weeks, even more. Therefore, that's why I and other socialists believe in the need for all workers to show solidarity with teachers. Even if you are a parent, you have to be thankful that your child is getting a decent education and that they will be (hopefully) the better for it.
As for affordability issues, the Government does have the dollars to pay teachers (and even disability support workers) more but it prefers to fritter them away on tax cuts for the wealthy and bailouts for rich businessmen like Alan Hubbard instead. If the Nats didn't do this, then there would be money in the kitty to settle fair pay deals with teachers and other public servants like Justice Ministry court clerks, nurses, junior doctors and now teachers. However, all government agencies are being starved of taxpayer resources in a deliberate attempt to minimise the role of the state for solely ideological reasons. Dare I say more?
Teachers should fight tooth and nail against any minimal pay deal and a roll back of conditions. Strikes are often deliberately timed to cause inconvenience in order to push a point home to employers that they can't take their workforces for granted. I ask every secondary school pupil and parent and every worker to show solidarity with our teachers who front one of the best education systems in the Western world.
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Comments
Points: 1) Europe who have
Points:
1) Europe who have a bigger state sector than us is broke, the idea goverments can borrow for ever is wrong, we already have huge debt, paying teachers another $200m plus a year is bankrupting the future for the kids they are teaching. They will be the one who pay back the loans the government will need to take out to cover this.
2) 25% of our kids a leaving our schools without basic reading and maths skills - thus 25% of teachers are incompentent. we need to target salaries to those who put in effort, unions pay everyone the same. That is why we have too many poor teachers
3) you are saying teachers do all these extra activities after school. It is a fact they are doing much much less than they used to, for less.... (it has been years since I have seen teachers taking a sports role after school, other than for there own scholl teams) declining service... once agian protected by unions
4) Have you heard about China? Do you seriously think business can keep going if they paid whatever a union asks? Sooner or later they will go out of business and everyone would be unemployed... The world wide cost of labour is nearly zero, we are lucky we can get what we currently do.
Are you saying cause
Are you saying cause teachers take teams from their own schools they are being slack it not taking other sports teams at say the rugby club? Cause if you are that is B/S!
I'd like to know where you
I'd like to know where you get your facts for statement number two? According to the Ministry of Education, 82.9% of all school leavers attain at LEAST NCEA level 1.
http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/indicators/education_and_learning_outcomes/qualifications/28788
Furthermore, in 2009, 86.4% of all school leavers achieved NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy.
This is a far cry from the 75% you are claiming.
Hey Chris, You might want to
Hey Chris,
You might want to change the picture in this article, I'm pretty sure I've spotted this image as an ad for a R-18 website =)
Hi, this picture was posted
Hi, this picture was posted by the Voxy admin team. I will ask them to change it. I agree, it seems inappropriate.
Teaching is an under-rated
Teaching is an under-rated and underpaid profession. People often neglect to realise that teachers form the basis of society, and through the teaching of children pass on knowledge, ideas, and skills that the average parent is incapable of being successful at.
Schooling forms the basis of how our world is today, and New Zealand has one of the best western world teaching practices, this has been proven in many studies.
Teaching is a feminised profession and studies have indicated that any profession where the majority of its work force is female, then that profession is underpaid and undervalued by the government and the general population. This is exactly what is happening right now. The media, community and government are degrading the issue because of the female voice.
In conclusion, although I have never been an educator myself,I stand for the rights of teachers. Our government is devaluing our future.
S be damned if you cannot see the true value of these hard working professionals, be damned if you cannot see reason, and be damned if you are quick to shoot your guns before you realise that education lays the foundations and the roots of this beautiful country.
"The media, community and
"The media, community and government are degrading the issue because of the female voice."
What a load of rubbish.
Ewen
Rolling strikes although an
Rolling strikes although an effective tactic in the Marsden Point days is less effective now. There in too much debit to lose much pay, like the rest of the country, so it will not bring the dividends they are after. Especially in a recession the Govt will turn them into the Baddies. Get out and stay out would bring the result, but alas these days are over.
Good on them for having a go. Thay may be better off as private contractors like us( Boilermakers) now. Kiwis have been hopeless when it comes to unions and they get what they deserve because of this. Jump on a plane and go to Oz. There Union structure(whats left of it)has kept pay and conditions up.
Too Little too late, Sorry teachers
Chris, I am a primary
Chris, I am a primary teacher and have been for 9 years. I earn $76,000 per annum. I do have a management unit. I could get more if I accepted a management position but I'm happy with what I have.
Primary teachers had the opportunity to get a degree and increase their pay. Some took it up and some did not.
Primary teachers get less non-contact time with students than secondary teachers. We call it Classroom Release time. We have the same pay as secondary teachers. Our conditions are different.
Class sizes are sometimes a consequence of BOT/ Principal decisions. Class sizes depend on the number of classes available and the number of teachers Senior Management decide to put into the classroom. There are some schools that have the classrooms available but choose to put their extra staff into an office position. They will increase the size of classes to allow staff to be released to work in an office at the expense of the class teacher with high class sizes. Some schools keep enrolling students to get more numbers. Some schools just don't have the space to have extra classes so class size increases.
The information that the media gets about teaching conditions are generated from BOTH the union and the Ministry but understand this - teaching is like any other job. What we have to remember is that every part of the system is essential to the whole. We would all like to have wage increases, we would all like to have better working conditions BUT we all have to live within our budget.
The offer teachers have been given is not about how we value teachers it is more about the budget and the economic times.
If the Unions really valued education then they would have fought for an increase in the pay for Support Staff now they deserve a wage increase, they have no security in their job and yet no teachers will go on strike to acknowledge and value the contribution of Support Staff.
Remember when you increase wages then it means that the Ministry will have to reduce numbers of teachers or reduce numbers of support staff or expenditure in another area of education. When you overspend in a budget line you will have to cut back in another budget line. My question is which budget line in education will be cut if secondary teachers get the increase they want?
Thanks to the Voxy team for
Thanks to the Voxy team for responding to my earlier comment. Also, remember that today has been a National Day of Action against the Government's proposed employment law changes. Let's remember that these could apply to teachers too.
If it's the graduates who
If it's the graduates who are striking, then it wasn't very bright of them going into the profession knowing their starting salary.
Happy to make the choice to start, now unhappy.
Well take responsibilty for your actions.
Ewen
If we were paid for what we
If we were paid for what we were truly worth MOTHERS or FATHERS would stay at home to raise their kids from prenatal to age 6 at the expense of the government. Parents are "first" teachers ....so that wage of $76,000 sounds a little on the low side to me.
Lets up the DPB!!!!!!
Couldnt disagree with this
Couldnt disagree with this article more.
Why get into a career you are not prepared to work in. Leave then. Leave right now. Or stop moaning. Go overseas and get a job somewhere else if you really cant accept the conditions here. How about you have a long hard think about this over the summer, as you will have plenty more time than the rest of us who get four weeks per year.
This article seems to explain whats going on better:
http://www.getfact.co.nz/Articles/National/teachers-warn-they-may-strike-further-unless-they-are-paid-a-gazillion-dollars.html