Teaching leave under fire

By Karen Burge

Teachers may lose their extended holidays under a proposal floated by a Government working party reviewing the length of the school year and day.

The 12 weeks of school holidays teachers enjoy each year - four times the statutory minimum - has been eyed with envy by workers in other industries but defended as vital by teachers for planning and professional development.

Now it may come under attack, with the working party discussion document providing just three examples of what happens overseas - all of them much shorter holidays - and the Minister of Education, Nick Smith, indicating he is eager for change here.

Denmark, Germany and Finland give teachers five or six weeks annual leave, which must be taken while students are on holiday.

Dr Smith said the time teachers were required at school was a problem which needed sorting out.

"Some teacher work tirelessly through the term holidays preparing course material, supporting extra-curricular activities and engaging in professional development programmes. Other teachers believe that when school's out, they're out. We need to explore the proposal of separately defining a school's holidays from a teacher's leave as has occurred already with principals."

But the president of the secondary teachers' union, Graeme Macann, said the Government risked losing a lot of goodwill if it sought to formalise teachers' hours.

"That's a pretty unfortunate exercise in teacher bashing from Nick Smith. He's a new minister and he ought to be doing all he can to lift moral in the sector and attacks on unidentified teachers who he says aren't working hard enough is not the way to do it."

He said unlike the European countries used as a comparison, New Zealand had a strong sporting culture and teachers spent a lot of holiday and after-school time coaching teams.

In addition teachers spent a lot of holiday time on planning and professional development.

Mr Macann said employment contract negotiations was the right place to discuss conditions of work.

The acting president of the primary teachers' union, Liz Patara, said formalised working hours could actually lead to teachers putting less time and effort into their jobs, which schools could ill-afford.

As a principal she relied on staff working until the job was done and during the holidays if necessary, either at work or at home.

There were already provisions in the primary contract for schools to require staff to come in for an extra 10 days when they might otherwise be on holiday.

There were also strong links between performance and pay and those provisions, along with efforts to boost performance in areas such as maths, should be given a chance to work before a "scorched earth policy" was adopted.

Public submissions on the document, which is available from the Ministry of Education, can be made until May 28.

Other issues include how many days schools should be open, the number of additional days teachers and support staff should be at school for planning, professional development and administration, and whether primary and secondary school holidays should be aligned.