Our Teachers contract negotiations...

Primary teachers and principals across New Zealand are currently negotiating their collective agreement with the Ministry of Education. An initial offer was brought to union members to consider, but it has been rejected. NZEI (the union for Primary Principals and Teachers) has surveyed their members and they have voted to have a full day strike on August the 15th.

The wider education sector is nearing crisis point. The major points around this are:

• The number of people signing up to train as teachers has significantly dropped over time by 40% from 2010-2016. Almost half of the trainees who graduate are no longer teaching five years after graduation.
• The number leaving the profession per annum is increasing, but the number of children of schooling age is rising. So we have fewer people training to become teachers, more children coming into the system, and more people leaving early.
• Across the education sector the teaching population is aging. The average age of our existing workforce is between 50-57 years old. Radio New Zealand has quoted that 20% of the teacher population is over 60 years old.
  
  

Most schools are affected by:

• A shortage of Relieving Teachers which has forced us to split classes sharing students with another class to get through a day.
• Long waiting lists due to vacancies that have not been filled for specialists that work in local Education (and Health) departments meaning our students identified as needing extra support for learning or who have challenging behaviours are left struggling and fall back on the school to cope with alone.
• Staff well-being is strained due to the pressures identified above.

What are the they campaigning for?

• More teachers - so your kids can get more attention.
• More resources/staff to support children with additional learning needs.
• A pay jolt to salaries for teachers to address the teacher shortage - so that your children will have a teacher in the future.