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Govt abandons its commitment to secondary schools
Wednesday 25 July 2007
Govt abandons its commitment to secondary schools
Parents, teachers, principals and boards will be disappointed the government’s current offer to secondary teachers will prevent schools from delivering the quality of education expected of them, PPTA president Robin Duff says.
“Its offer won’t address the increasing problems of recruitment and retention nor reduce secondary school class sizes, let alone enhance the quality of education in the next three years. “
He said the government set up a Ministerial Taskforce that recommended setting an objective salary mechanism to enable schools to recruit and retain quality teachers, avoid industrial action and allow the parties to concentrate on developing professional initiatives to support teaching and learning.
“Sadly the government’s inadequate offer on salaries and virtually nothing on the professional initiatives, not to mention its refusal to even address staffing, would suggest that the Taskforce process is in serious trouble.
“PPTA was hoping for a speedy settlement of the STCA as happened in 2004 but the Ministry of Education’s miserly offer and its refusal to budge from it is dashing those hopes.
“Secondary teachers will see this as a betrayal. The government’s commitment made in 2004 to engage constructively to build a 10 year vision for secondary education was obviously just empty words.
“The Minister preaches about the need for high quality teaching and personalised learning for every student but this offer suggests he doesn’t want to pay for it.
“The government can find millions to invest in another yachting challenge, but surely an investment in the secondary schooling of our future professional leaders and decision-makers would add greater value to our country.
“It is not too late for the government to make that investment with a substantially improved offer.”
PPTA will hold regional paid union meetings to seek members’ views on a course of action in August.
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