Schools boycott ministry training

Between 200 and 300 teachers from Invercargill and surrounds will boycott workshops aimed at preparing teachers for the introduction of National Standards.

Invercargill Primary Principals Association president Peter Hopwood said no teachers from the association's 23 schools, including Catholic schools, from Bluff to Invercargill and rural areas bordering the city boundaries would attend either of two training workshops scheduled to be held in Invercargill next month.

With the backing of school boards of trustees, teachers were protesting the $80-a-head cost of attending and maintaining calls for a trial of the standards.

However, in an email sent by her press secretary to The Southland Times yesterday, Education Minister Anne Tolley questioned why schools were being charged to attend the workshops.

"This is an operational issue for the Ministry of Education and I have asked for clarification on why some schools are being charged a registration fee.

"I will make further comment once I receive more informa-tion."

She stops short of condemning the action, but says the "vast majority" of schools were getting on with the task of implementing national standards in a "calm and professional manner".

Mr Hopwood said of the two day-long workshops to be held in Invercargill – on March 2 and 9 – only one had been an option for teachers to attend.

"On the second day no-one could go anyway because of a paid union meeting."

Boards of trustees were being asked to fund the attendance of "support leaders" or principals and curriculum leaders, and the cost of travel and relief-teacher coverage on top of the $80 would have to come from schools' already stretched operations grants, he said.

The charge covers venue hire and catering for the workshops run by the College of Education at the University of Otago under contract to the Education Ministry.

The association had investigated the legality of the association's refusal to attend but, as the courses were held outside schools, teachers had the right to refuse.

Teachers believed the workshops would offer little than what they had already been told by the ministry and it was parents who needed more information, he said.

He had already identified a problem with the standards, which included "signposts" in a child's schooling when teachers were to report to parents.

For new entrants one of those signposts was reached after 40 weeks of schooling.

That did not take into account when the child started school or holidays, he said. "I have kids who are (one week after school starting) hitting that benchmark."

Southland Primary Principals Association president Wendy Ryan said Southland schools had not made a formal agreement to follow Invercargill's lead but many schools would opt out.

The first workshop will be held in Lumsden on February 23.

- © Fairfax NZ News