Hutt Valley teachers 'staunch' on pay claim

RISING EXPECTATIONS: Hutt Valley secondary school teachers, many of them dressed in black, released balloons printed with the words 'Value Schools' at a stopwork meeting

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"Staunch" is how the PPTA's Hutt Valley media spokesman Trevor Williams described the attitude of more than 450 secondary school teachers at a stopwork meeting at Naenae College last week.

Pay talks are at stalemate between the Ministry of Education, offering 1.5 per cent this year and 1 per cent next year, and the PPTA, seeking 4 per cent in a 12-month contract.

While the result of the local vote couldn't be confirmed by our deadline, it was announced at the weekend that PPTA members nationwide have voted to strike for a day, possibly in less than a fortnight.

Other proposed actions include protests out of school, at board of trustee meetings and a ban on teacher call-back days for administration work next term. Mr Williams said last Tuesday he'd be surprised if local teachers hadn't voted in favour of all the proposed protest actions.

Lower Hutt teacher Jack Boyle said the Government would be "extremely remiss" not to make an investment in the future of education for New Zealanders.

"I think while the fiscal environment, the fact a lot of people have been hurting, definitely comes into it, supporting people through quality education is the way forward."

Mr Williams suggested a major reason Australia is one of the few countries not so badly affected by the recession was because they invested heavily in education.

"You can put any construction on it you like, but [schools] compete for a graduate pool. If we want a quality education system, we need quality graduates. You get that from [offering] good pay and conditions."

He says it's scare tactics for the Government to talk of borrowing $250 million a week and not being able to afford public service wage increases, when half of that amount is for servicing debt.

Although the 4 per cent claim "is really only treading water" in terms of secondary schools' teachers' pay keeping pace with cost of living increases, Taita College PPTA co-chair Jo Mells said "what we're really on about is conditions".

Hard-won provisions for guaranteed pupil non-contact time for teachers so they could write reports, get photocopying done, etc, "is not on the table any more," she said.

"The non-contact time was in response to our increased workload. Now it's going to be up to principals to decide whether it's offered or not. That really touches a nerve."

With a new curriculum, and the need to re-write NCEA standards, teachers told us workloads will rise, yet money for subject-specific professional development training is being withdrawn.

Also gone are meal, travel and childcare allowances for teachers and heads of department asked to come in during school holidays to plan timetables and deal with other administration work. Under the ministry's offer there is no provision that reasonable notice has to be given for such call-back days, Mr Williams said.

Mr Williams is particularly upset at lack of progress on provision of resources for pupils with special psychological, emotional or learning needs. "We're teachers, we're not psychologists, we're not social workers or police, or youth counsellors in that professional sense."

An estimated 5 per cent of pupils need this dedicated specialist help, and another 15 per cent need it from time to time.

In the last year of the Labour Government "the kibosh" was put on multi-agency task forces to look at these issues "and National has not made any moves to do anything about it either".

"If I have kids in my class I can't get a teacher aide for, because they're 15th [in priority line] and there aren't enough resources, that child can't be productive." The result can be also cause a lot of disruption in the classroom.

Mr Williams is a 40-year veteran of teaching, and has won community and professional accolades for his classroom dedication. He is incensed that hard-working teachers are told by the Government that if they just "lifted their game", pupils with specialist needs who are struggling will be all right.

Since the teacher strikes of 2002, the agreement hammered out after arbitration and the report by Dame Margaret Bazley, progress has been made on some teacher concerns, and modest pay rises keeping pace with inflation have been settled. That contract could have been rolled over without disruption, Mr Williams said.

He shakes his head over "why any politician would want to go down this path [of strikes] again".

- Hutt News