Category: Unions

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

Pouring $153 million of public money into charter schools when New Zealand’s state schools are already full of innovation and opportunity, is wasteful, says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president. 

 “Talk to any principal or teacher and they will be able to tell you about initiatives that they are desperate for funding for, to meet the needs of the students in their schools, whether that is supporting attendance initiatives, learning support, food in schools, relationships and participation with the local community –  the list goes on.  

 “When charter schools were introduced under the last National-ACT coalition there was no evidence that they improved educational outcomes despite funding each student at least six times more than state school students. There remains no compelling evidence that charter schools can achieve the claims being made of them by the Associate Minster for Charter Schools.  The fact that all but one former charter school have been re-integrated into the public school system shows there was no need for them in the first place.  

 “At the very time where every cent of public money is being scrutinised, it is unbelievable that hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into charter schools with no accountability to the public or their local communities.” 

 Chris Abercrombie said evidence from the UK charter school / academy experiment overwhelmingly showed there are no better educational outcomes for kids.  It also showed that local autonomy and decision making had been completely removed. “Communities will rightfully be dismayed by the thought of their local school being converted without any accountability or agreement of the community required. 

 Chris Abercrombie said today’s announcement contained no details of what professional support would be available for teachers in schools that converted to charter schools. “The idea of teaching in a school with no requirement to teach the curriculum, with no access to centralised professional learning and development or assessment support and alongside unqualified teachers will not be an attractive option.” 

 He said Mr Seymour’s statement about charter schools being able to help students engage with learning differently was gobsmacking, given the evidence that exactly these students are rejected by overseas charter schools in order to meet their targets. “Nor has Mr Seymour explained what happens to the children if a charter school is closed or how the disruption to their education is managed.  

 “Teachers, students and communities are becoming increasingly confused about exactly what this Government’s policies are in the education space – it’s going in all directions at the ideological whim of the various parties. Mr Seymour’s announcement today does not give us any confidence or clarity that this Government has a clear direction for education.  Our students deserve much better.”

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

“Ensuring that one of kids’ most basic needs – to be fed properly – is met each day at school  gives them a much better chance of being able to learn and achieve. We’re particularly pleased that the programme will continue in its current form for the rest of this year – schools will be breathing a sigh of relief.”

Chris Abercrombie said it was surprising that the Government was taking two years to review the lunch programme.  “This Government has been extremely critical of other governments for being slow with reviews and initiatives – two years seems a very long amount of time for this particular review.

“Schools need certainty and work should be focused on expansion of the programme – the more children and young people who can be guaranteed lunch each day, the better.”

Chris Abercrombie said teachers were concerned the new bulk purchasing system could reduce schools’ ability to respond to the particular needs of their communities. “We will have to see how it rolls out but it’s really important that meeting students’ needs continues to be at the heart of Ka Ora Ka Ako.”

“The best way to make sure there’s no waste is to make sure the food is what kids want to eat. Schools that make their lunches in-house are the ones that report the highest level of satisfaction with the programme and we don’t want that to be lost.”

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president, said outside of collective agreement negotiations paid union meetings were held when there were government proposals that would affect members, the teaching profession, schools or ākonga.

“The focus of these meetings will be how we as a profession respond to the Government’s proposals to channel money out of public education and into charter schools, and how we as a union will continue to develop our constitutional objective to affirm and advance Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

“There has been a glaring lack of consultation and information, from both the Ministry and the Ministers of Education on how charter schools will work, despite repeated requests for details through official information requests and face-to-face meetings.

“Charter schools were a hugely expensive and unproven experiment, when they were last introduced back in 2014. Funded totally by public money, they can be run by whoever wants to run them, they are not required to be transparent or accountable, they can use untrained and unqualified staff as teachers and they’re not required to teach the national curriculum. The fact that all the charter schools – bar one – were able to be reintegrated successfully back into the state school system demonstrates there was no need for them in the first place.

“We are seriously concerned this time around about existing schools being converted to charter schools. There are signficiant implications for children and young people’s access to their local school, teachers’ terms and conditions of work, redundancy costs, property issues and much more. Every school community has a right to know what is being planned.”

Chris Abercrombie said teachers were also concerned about the effect of Government policies and decisions on Māori student achievement, and its responsibilities under Te Tiriti.

“We are concerned that some of the Government’s policies are undermining the great work that has been done in schools towards improving educational outcomes for ākonga Māori.

“We cannot stand by while that work is unravelled and we cannot stand by while local schools are privatised.”

The meetings will be held during the fortnight from Monday 13 May to Friday 24 May.

PPTA Te Wehengarua paid union meeting schedule

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

Pay equity is about ensuring the same pay for work requiring similar levels of skills and responsibilities.

Chris Abercrombie says there has been a lot of great progress made with pay equity over the last few years, including for large groups of workers such as aged care workers and nurses.

Disbanding the taskforce would make it more difficult for workers to raise pay equity claims, and for the claims currently in progress to reach completion. One of these is the teachers’ pay equity claim, covering more than 90,000 workers across the education sector – from early childhood through to secondary, including English language and Māori language schools and kura. The teachers’ pay equity claim is currently in the assessment phase, where data is being analysed and comparators are being sought.

“If the Minister genuinely believes that government agencies can take on the taskforce’s work, given the significant cuts to their organisations, she is dreaming. We understand proposed cuts at the Ministry of Education, for example, will reduce their ability to continue the pay equity work they have been doing already – let alone take on more responsiblities.”

“The taskforce has made a huge contribution towards addressing the unfair practice of paying feminised professions less because of a historical undervaluing of the work that women do. We were beginning to see the putting right of serious imbalances in how people were paid based simply on their gender.

“The axing of the taskforce will also leave a serious gap in knowledge, experience and support for employers, Ministers and communities.”

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

“As the report notes, last year’s events were very stressful for everyone involved, especially the students. It is reasonable to expect fast lessons will have been learned and steps taken to make sure the technology and related systems work without issue this year. Whatever it takes to restore our trust in the system, it must be done.”

“An explanation of the drivers for why digital exams should be relied on as opposed to traditional hard copies is important for students, parents and schools to see and understand. A world class assessment system is not cheap and the investment needs are great both within NZQA and within schools.”

Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president, said teachers welcomed the review’s recommendations to provide more support for principal’s nominees in schools. Principal’s nominees are individual teachers in each school who are the key liaison between the schools and the Qualifications Authority and have overall responsibility for the running of exams in their school.

“We are really proud of how all the principal’s nominees responded to the problems with exams last year. They did amazing work under intense pressure, stepping up to ensure that those students affected were assisted as quickly and effectively as possible.”

Chris Abercrombie reiterated the call for more funding for the Qualifications Authority to ensure it had all the systems and safeguards in place for future exams. “We can have either good assessment or cheap assessment – we can’t have both.”

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

“It’s great that the Government has listened to school communities and health advocates and is funding the programme for another few years. There will be hundreds of thousands of tamariki, rangatahi and their families who will be very relieved to hear this news.”

Chris Abercrombie said with unemployment rising and no foreseeable reduction in the cost of living, many families in Aotearoa New Zealand would continue to do it very hard over the next few years. “It made no sense whatsoever to cut this programme.

“Ka Ora Ka Ako not only benefits students by ensuring they have at least one nutritious meal five days a week and are in a better frame of mind to learn, but it  also provides employment for people in the local community.

“We hope that this reprieve gives the Associate Education Minister more time to explore the benefits of this programme and consider extending it where necessary.

“We also hope that the Prime Minister’s desire to make the programme more efficient does not involve targeting to particular students within a school. The evidence is very clear that this is stigmatising and does not work.”