NZEI Te Riu Roa are calling on the Government to assist with working conditions for educators. Mark Potter and Andrea Anderson explain what the issues are and why teachers are planning on striking.
A teacher is “everything to everyone” — from emotional support to learning support and everything in between, a Rotorua assistant principal says.
Tomorrow, more than 50,000 early childhood workers, primary and secondary teachers and principals will take part in a nationwide strike.
Both the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA), covering secondary and area school teachers, and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), covering primary and kindergarten teachers, said members were striking for better pay, higher staffing numbers and more school funding.
The Ministry of Education says it has offered “significant increases” and improvements to many of the conditions union members wanted addressed.
Negotiations continued yesterday but no agreement was reached.
Rotorua Girls’ High School assistant principal Sarah Riley believed strike action was necessary to highlight teachers’ challenging working conditions. But after three years of disrupted education for students, she did not want it to be “detrimental to the students’ learning”, she said.
“I hope the Ministry of Education listen and we do reach some kind of agreement. I don’t think ongoing action is going to be beneficial to anybody. There are teachers who cannot afford to miss multiple days of pay, and students who cannot afford to miss multiple days of school.”
Riley, who also taught Year 12 English, said a big struggle for teachers right now was responding to the social and emotional needs of students while also delivering the curriculum.
She said better pay was not the “main driver” behind her striking, but rather the need for more support staff in the classroom.
“Everyone is trying to juggle multiple balls, and there is not much support out there for teachers trying to juggle all of this.”
Teachers often picked up extra responsibilities providing emotional support to students and helping whānau address issues at home. These relationships were “extremely important” to young people’s success, she said.
Sarah Riley says teachers do not have enough support to meet student needs. Photo / Andrew Warner
“We end up being everything to everyone. You can’t just turn away and say, ‘No, that’s not my job’ - it doesn’t quite work like that.”
She said this type of work could be exhausting depending on the problem raised. These could include anxiety, attendance, abuse and other social issues.
“Sometimes you can’t do anything for them apart from listening or pointing them in the right direction. We have girls who just need a kind word just because they haven’t had that kind word. There are kids at school on a daily basis - maybe this is the safest place they have.
“Trying to juggle all those extra issues as well as actually teaching can be really taxing. If you haven’t got some sort of resilience - it can lead you to want to leave because you can’t cope.”
“I got into the profession because I want to make a difference, but there are times where I sit there and think, ‘This is really hard’.”
Māori resource teacher Kaareen Hotereni, who is based at Kawerau Pūtauaki School, told the Rotorua Daily Post it was upsetting area school teachers had not yet received a second offer.
“It’s not good enough - we haven’t been given the offer to be able to make our decision. At the end of the day, we are packed into a tight corner. It’s part of our reason for striking,” she said.
But her main reason for taking part in strike action was to send a strong message about the high workload and the wellbeing of kaiako [teachers].
“It’s about being the best teacher you can possibly be to give the best to our tamariki mokopuna.”
She said teachers were having to deal with challenging behaviours while also teaching a class full of students. More in-class support and professional development time was needed to address this issue, she said.
“It leads to worrying about how you are dealing with these challenging behaviours, to the detriment of other tamariki,” she said.
“As a kaiako, you are trying to run your classroom and learn new strategies to bring consistency to your learning environment. It’s a whole cycle of stress.”
Te Kura o Maketū Year 1-3 kaiako Robyn Lose.
Meanwhile, at Te Kura o Maketū, Year 1 to 3 kaiako Robyn Lose said the inequities within the whole system meant “tamariki are missing out”.
Lose, who had taught at the kura for six years, said the Ministry of Education promoted outcomes of equity but was “not willing to fully invest” in the processes to achieve it.
“Eliminate the disparities within our education system. Our tamariki deserve it, and we do too.”
She said strike action was a “high priority” as she wanted to see changes in a profession that was under-resourced and under-valued.
“They [students] get the bare minimum of everything. We have to exhaust every avenue just so they don’t [miss out].”
Educators also needed more time to complete the administration involved in their roles, rather than doing it at home.
“Instead of taking it home, when that is supposed to be our whānau time. Keeping a work-home life balance has proven difficult.”
Andrea Andresen, NZEI area council chairwoman. She is also assistant principal at Tauranga Special School. Photo / Alex Cairns
On Friday, Andrea Andresen, NZEI Te Riu Roa ki Waiariki Bay of Plenty area council chairwoman, said she would be striking because teachers were having to pay out of their own pockets and compromising their health and relationships to meet the needs of the system.
She said improving the non-contact time and support for students with additional needs would help stem the continual stream of teachers leaving the sector.
PPTA Western Bay of Plenty regional chairwoman Julie Secker said post-Covid-19, more problems in the community were falling at teachers’ feet.
“We need more help in the classroom. We need more support staff. We need more help for counsellors.”
Ministry of Education employment relations and pay equity general manager Mark Williamson said the offer that NZEI members had rejected so far provided “significant increases”.
“For example, a $4000 increase to trained teacher salaries from December 1, 2022 and a further 3 per cent or $2000 increase to salaries on December 1, 2023,” he said.
