Kerre McIvor: It's time to pay our teachers more

For too long, the goodwill of those who choose to teach has been exploited. Photo / Brett Phibbs

COMMENT:

Go the teachers! It can't have been an easy decision to make to close down more than half the country's schools and take to the streets but they did it in this week's so called Mega Strike.

I hate the term – it's like weather bomb – but I guess when you have 50,000 primary, intermediate and secondary teachers all joining forces for the very first time, it is a big deal.

Not every teacher supported the strike action but the New Zealand Educational Institute and the Post Primary Teachers Association are powerful unions and when they say everybody out, they're out.

They were out, in force, the day before Budget Day, marching down Queen St in Auckland, to Parliament in Wellington and in just about every other city in the country. And now more strikes are planned for this week.

I have no doubt expectation is high among the nation's state servants – the teachers, the nurses, the police – that with a Labour coalition Government in power, their pay and conditions will improve.

When National's in power, it's a bit like Mum and Dad are home and you don't try it on with them; when Labour's in government, it's like the babysitter's arrived, and you can get away with more.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins' offer is a $1.2 billion deal over four years, which would bring teachers into the top 20 per cent of income earners. Photo / Mark Mitchell

However, Education Minister Chris Hipkins is standing firm. The offer on the table is it, he says, and they can take it or leave it. The Government's offer is a $1.2 billion deal over four years, which Hipkins says would bring teachers into the top 20 per cent of income earners.

Not bad, you might think – not something you'd sniff at, and then there's all those glorious holidays.

But talk to any teacher – particularly those who have left the profession – and they'll tell you that our education system is almost too broken to be fixed.

At the heart of it is the admin they have to deal with and the behavioural problems of students. Every teacher wants to be Robin Williams in the Dead Poet's Society. They all want to liberate the Preciouses of this world from the abject misery of their home lives and empower them through education.

And I'm absolutely certain that if most of our teachers could work on the abused, neglected or simply struggling children in their classes in a one-on-one capacity, they would be enormously successful.

Teachers striking in Auckland say they deserve more pay. Photo / Brett Phibbs

But the reality is that there are numerous children with competing needs and varying degrees of competencies within each and every class and trying to give them the individual attention they deserve is what is draining the teachers I talked to. Along with the seemingly endless paperwork.

There is also frustration that too often, education is shaped along the lines of competing academic ideologies around learning, rather than what actually works for the majority of children.

There's a sense from some teachers that they – and the children – are guinea pigs, grist for an educational academic's mill. I think they should stick to their guns.

I'm biased in favour of teachers as my mum was a very, very good one and my daughter had great teachers at her schools. I loved my teachers as well, and I'm sure most of us can remember the name of a particular teacher who inspired us – thank you, Mr Taylor.

People don't go into teaching for the money or the holidays – they become teachers because they genuinely believe in the power of education to transform lives. But you can only exploit people's goodwill for so long. And this time, the teachers have had enough.