L-R: Cambridge High head prefects Ben Bonetti, Luke O'Brien, Bella Peacocke and Anna Jago are among students calling for change. Photo / Ben Bonetti
L-R: Cambridge High head prefects Ben Bonetti, Luke O'Brien, Bella Peacocke and Anna Jago are among students calling for change. Photo / Ben Bonetti
A group of high school student leaders are taking a stand and calling on the Government to pay teachers more - in a bid to stop ongoing strike action so they can get back into the classroom.
Dozens of student leaders and prefects from around the Waikato have banded together to send a letter to Education Minister Jan Tinetti to get their point across.
“On behalf of all rangatahi (young people), we want to say that enough is enough. The greatest detriment to our future as New Zealand students is education disruption.
“While you battle over pay and conditions, students across the country are being sent home.
“Yet again our learning - despite all the rhetoric to the opposite - is happily being used as a pawn for political and union conflict.”
The letter, addressed to Tinetti and Secretary for Education Iona Holsted, has been signed by dozens of student leaders - prefects, head students and head prefects - from eight high schools in the Waikato region.
Students backing the cause include those from Cambridge High, Hamilton Girls’ High, Te Awamutu College, Hillcrest High, Waikato Diocesan, Sacred Heart Girls’ College Hamilton, St John’s College Hamilton and Hamilton Boys.
The student-led campaign and petition have created a logo as part of their cause. Graphic / Sophie Laurent
In the letter, they acknowledge the difficulties they have faced as young learners affected by a worldwide pandemic.
They also point out that as the strike action continues, the Education Minister and her staff are contradicting the entire purpose of their jobs - to ensure the education of the country’s children and young people.
First a worldwide pandemic, now teacher strikes
“We, as a student body, are in our fourth year of disruptions. We have not had it easy. However, we have compromised and done our very best, as we knew that the past three years were out of anyone’s control.
“This time, we do have control. You have control and right now this is a change we can make. Why are you putting us, the students, in the middle of a discussion where we are your focus?”
L-R: Hillcrest High head prefects Alex Collett, Nico Bhula, Jessica Licht and Sage Garrett created the petition Students United for Fair Teacher Pay.
By early this afternoon, just over 550 people - many of them teenagers - had signed it.
In a comment section inviting people to share their reasons for signing the petition, many secondary students have shared their own experiences.
“I’m going to fail,” one wrote.
Another student explained that after almost all their high school years being interrupted by Covid-19, their last year at high school was also now being disrupted - this time by strikes.
“It makes it harder for us to pass; which is hard enough as it is due to burnout, other commitments and workload. Teachers should be treated just as well as any high-earning career and recognised for their selfless work.”
Secondary school teachers last week voted to reject the latest Ministry of Education agreement offer and to go on strike again.
That has caused frustrations among parents, who say the strike action has gone too far and it is becoming increasingly difficult to juggle family dynamics such as picking up children from school on different days.
Tinetti told the Herald she agreed with the students the strikes should end - but blamed members of the secondary teachers union, the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA), for the ongoing disruptions.
“I want the strikes to end and our young people to get the education they need and deserve,” Tinetti said.
“The offer that PPTA members rejected was a fair offer, so it has been hugely disappointing that PPTA members have continued to strike and disrupt school for our young people.
“The Government can’t fix all the things the teachers want fixed in a single round of bargaining – that’s just not possible. But the offer the Government has made is a fair one,” she said.
Ministry of Education employments relations general manager, Mark Williamson, last week said it was disappointing that the offer had not been accepted by secondary school teachers.
The offer included immediate one-off payments of up to $5210.
“Teachers who are early in their careers would have been paid between 26 per cent and 35 per cent more in 2025 than they were paid in 2022, when the collective agreement expired,” he said.
“Teachers progressing up the scale would have been paid much more than the expected rate of inflation for the coming two years.”
Tinetti said the offer provided an average pay increase of 11 per cent: “By December next year, teachers who have only just qualified would start on more than $60,000 - an increase of nearly $10,000,” she said.
The offer would have meant two-thirds of secondary teachers would get a base annual salary of at least $100,000, she said.
