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Auckland primary schools feeling the strain of a teacher shortage and prolonged pay talks are being advised to boycott training for the new curriculum.
The Auckland Primary Principals Association yesterday emailed members to say staff were already under pressure and planning for the new lessons under the new curriculum would add to the workload.
It advised principals to boycott meetings or training sessions for the new document, released on Tuesday in the first revision since 1993.
Changes for primary schools under the new curriculum include making it compulsory to offer a second language in Years 7 and 8.
"Primary schools need to be resourced to deliver new initiatives," the association email read.
"It is of great concern that while the Ministry of Education recognises Auckland schools have a recruitment and retention problem they have refused to settle the agreement which expired on July 1 this year.
"Your executive asks you to take a strong professional stance and demonstrate that you are not prepared to place further stress on an already overworked teaching profession without appropriate recognition from the Ministry of Education in the form of settlement of both agreements."
President Ken Pemberton said there was a fear the workload would put more stress on staff and drive more teachers away.
He said results of a member survey on teacher supply expected by the end of the year would reveal the extent of the problem.
The New Zealand Educational Institute national president, Irene Cooper, said the action could be just the tip of the iceberg from "angry, upset, frustrated" teachers nationwide.
While the country's biggest teacher union supported the new curriculum in principle, Ms Cooper said it too believed schools needed more resources to implement it.
"I know that they are feeling very upset they are being asked to do yet another major task when the Government is seemingly not prepared to put any money forward into resourcing those middle leaders and those principals who are actually going to have to deliver on this work."
Talks between the union and the ministry reached a stalemate over principals' pay and the amount of money available for teachers who take on extra responsibility.
Ms Cooper said the negotiations were continuing under the most tense conditions in a decade.
