Kindergarten teachers march

About 1770 kindergarten teachers walk off the job today in only the third strike by the sector in 121 years.

Rallies will be held in 20 cities and towns across New Zealand as teachers talk to the public and pass out leaflets explaining the reasons for the strike.

The 1770 teachers are members of the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa union.

Colin Tarr, the national head of the union, said kindergartens should have given notice of the strike to parents and told them what to do. If they had not, he advised parents not to take their children to kindergarten today as he did not know of any teachers who would be going to work.

"Kindergarten teachers are taking this action because their employers want to be able to impose working conditions on them that will erode the quality of education they provide to 45,000 children and their families," Mr Tarr said.

Negotiations for a collective agreement began in August between the union, the Ministry of Education, New Zealand Kindergartens and the Federation of Free Kindergartens.

The parties could not agree and the teachers decided to strike.

Breaks between terms, like those of primary and secondary school teachers, were under threat and employers wanted the ability to increase contact hours.

"Not having term breaks and increasing contact hours to unsustainable levels will cause kindergarten teachers to burn out," Mr Tarr said. "This means the quality of education will inevitably suffer."

In the North Island, rallies will be held in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Whangarei, Gisborne, Napier, Hastings, New Plymouth, Wanganui, and Palmerston North.

- NZPA