PPTA: Speech To 2007 Annual Conference

SPEECH TO 2007 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
Greetings, delegates and observers.

A very warm welcome to the 2007 PPTA Annual Conference. I see a great many people I know in front of me! And other new faces, perhaps attending conference for the first time. An especially warm welcome to you new folk, because we do depend on and value new blood and fresh ideas in this organisation.

It has been my great privilege to visit many different parts of the country as your president and this helps me considerably in my efforts to keep in touch with grassroots feelings and the concerns of members. So far I have been to over 80 branches and 12 regions during my time as president (or so I am reliably told by my personal assistant!), and I have been impressed with two things in particular. The first is the very great diversity of the membership in this organisation, under almost any heading you care to think of!

The other thing that always impresses me is the commitment of members to the job they are doing, often under pretty difficult and challenging circumstances. In fact, I think being a secondary teacher is still looked on as a vocation by many, and that is something we can be very proud of. But it certainly should not deter us from trying to achieve the conditions of work that will attract people into the profession.

We will do this in our usual way, by campaigning for what we see as sensible improvements to the education system we currently have. And for intelligent policies in the future to cope with the challenges of tomorrow's world.

Alas, it is not easy to make sensible progress with governments of any ilk, because our sector is dependent on quality people and quality people cost money and governments are inclined to seek the cheapest solutions. The reality is that if we want good people to come secondary teaching then we have to attract the best New Zealand graduates. We have to compete with other professions and even other countries that are prepared to pay more for them than we are.

PPTA has a long and proud history of involvement in working for improvements to secondary education, and our vision for the future is set out in our conference paper, 'Secondary Teaching into the Future'. Underpinning our process of conceptualising about the future is the reality that we simply do not create a future from nothing, but we have to be constantly aware that what we do now has a very considerable bearing on what we are capable of doing in the years to come. Too often governments use discussions about the future to distract attention from the very real problems they should be addressing in the present.

Hence our concern to gain public understanding and acceptance of key principles, like the recognition of the value of a strong public education system and that schools should be seen as valuable resources of the whole community. Schools need to be connected to their communities and part of an education network.

We also support the principle of personalised learning, but in order for this to be possible, we need our schools to be staffed by well-trained and qualified teachers. The Ministry of Education has identified the following elements of personalised learning:

a. ensuring students have a voice in decision making about their own learning
b. making better use of data to about educational outcomes when making decisions about students
c. having higher expectations for educational success for every student, and valuing differences
d. strengthening professional leadership
e. providing supportive educational systems and structures (including legislation, regulations and accountability, resourcing, property and infrastructure, ICT, curriculum and qualifications)
f. strengthening partnerships with parents, families/whanau and communities, and
g. recognising innovations that lead to better educational outcomes.

Listen carefully and tell me what's missing. Well, what about "a well-trained and qualified and valued teaching service"? It's omissions like this that make us wonder whether "personalised learning" is a genuine educational advance or a scam.

No-one can doubt the importance of providing our young people with more individualised support and guidance as they learn and grow up. They need mentoring and encouragement if they are to achieve their potential as productive citizens in our democracy but it's foolish to think this can happen without considerable investment in education. Currently students get an average of six minutes a week of individualised time from each teacher. Is it really possible to promote the ideals of personalised learning without addressing this?

We don't think so, which is why one of our executive members, Angela Roberts, will be making a report to you on the issue of class size. You will remember that the 2006 conference started a campaign for class size reduction and controls, and we gathered information to present in the workstream process. I want to say here and now that the process of working with the Ministry of Education on this matter was an utterly unproductive and unmitigated disaster from the word go.

I need to make a few very basic points here. The truth is quite simply that every teacher knows that better teaching can be done with smaller classes.

Who for example, could possibly believe that classrooms of 30 plus students are acceptable in the 21st century? We still work in an education system designed for the industrial age - as ex-principal Charmaine Pountney puts it, with rows of adolescents cooped up in classrooms. That environment doesn't enable teachers to get to know their students better and personalise teaching to their individual needs and aspirations.

Arguments that suggest otherwise, usually from bean-counters, just do not stack up. It is also a fact that our larger schools are disadvantaged by the current formula, which was developed when the biggest schools were half the size they are today. If we are seriously seeking to make the job more attractive, ensuring our teachers all have manageable classes would be a very smart move.

Even though the Ministry may not see a trained and qualified teaching service as critical to effective learning we certainly do. Our paper: 'An advanced qualifications pathway for secondary teachers' calls for a very big improvement to our processes for professional development and argues that a key component in a successful education system is the capacity for teachers to learn throughout their careers and continually improve their professional expertise. They should do this by following individual pathways that could be tailored to their particular needs.

We would argue that the setting up of a Centre for Secondary Teaching Excellence funded by the Tertiary Education Commission is the way to go. This is because we have been deeply disappointed by our experience of Ministry of Education processes in connection with professional development, the most glaring example being the scandalous, tedious and pettifogging way in which the two specialist subject diplomas for G3 teachers were developed, with the second one still not in operation today.

If the government is serious about wanting really good teachers in front of students, then establishing a comprehensive and coherent qualifications structure and financially supporting teachers who involve themselves in professional development would be a very sound investment in the future.

On the matter of NCEA, those of you with longer memories will recall the contribution PPTA made to the debate about qualifications 10 years ago, with the report of our qualifications inquiry, Te Tiro Hou. That report identified eight criteria by which any qualifications system should be judged, and if we invoke these criteria again to assess the changes to NCEA recently announced, we will see some serious fishhooks for schools and teachers in what has been done.

I would suggest that for far too long there was a refusal to recognise the need for some action on problems with NCEA that had obviously emerged. But then, because of negative publicity, there was an unbelievable rush to do some fixing. Alas, this happened without the necessary consultation with the sector, leaving us with the unsatisfactory situation we now have to deal with.

This leads me to attempt a clarification of our political position! I am talking at a time when the matter of legislation concerning pre-election advertising is being developed for consideration by our Parliament. Quite simply, we believe we have a right to advocate for the policies that will improve New Zealand secondary education, and this may involve us in advertising, interviews, publishing articles, talking to a wide range of politicians and to other organisations both in the education sector and outside it.

As I said earlier, we have a very diverse membership, and we have no intention of upsetting sections of our membership by coming out in support of one particular party. We certainly do not make donations to any political organisation, despite what some people seem to think! Our members pay their subscriptions for us to work for improvements to secondary education, and it is on that basis that we operate.

One particular policy of the current government that we find objectionable, admittedly initiated by their predecessors in power, is their intransigent approach to entrenchment. Of course I am referring to the arrangement whereby the government has to offer to pass on those conditions we work so hard to obtain to other groups in the education sector. Thus it is inevitable that the configuration of working conditions in our secondary teachers' collective agreement is constricted by that commitment, which has to be factored into the financial calculations that are an inevitable part of every negotiation round.

Quite honestly, this is a severe, unnecessary and ultimately absurd restriction on our capacity to tailor effective solutions for our sector that make sensible progress with our particular challenges and problems. We have repeatedly made suggestions to the government about loosening this straitjacket without compromising the holy grail of a unified pay system, but to no avail. The logic of each sector being able to operate more freely without this limitation, and the consequent capacity to spend taxpayer dollars to much better effect, seems to be lost on the current government and its advisers.

However, it will be plain from my remarks that we do our best to work effectively with whatever democratically elected government is in power, and that approach will continue. While we may disagree with various political parties on points of policy, we still have to get on with the job and achieve the best we can on behalf of our members, and that will be our ongoing responsibility.

Finally, and I have to say it was not clear until Sunday afternoon at the Executive meeting whether I would be able to say this, I'm relieved and happy to announce today that there is agreement on the elements of a proposed settlement package for the Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement.

But please don't confuse this with settlement - there is still work to be done. We hope to have a settlement package to take out to members for ratification next term.

We'll be having a confidential session for members today and a summary will go on the members' only website but I will not be making any public comment until we have achieved a settlement. Should details of the package be leaked to the media my response will be to make no comment.

Getting to this stage has been an exhausting, tortuous, even torturous process, in particular for our negotiators. I don't think people realise the level of their sacrifice, their patience and their perseverance.

In raising issues and securing better conditions for members they have faced roadblocks, obstacles and barriers. The work streams approach and the long term pathway has been seriously undermined. There is a whole lot to be done to repair teachers' trust and confidence if we are to move forward and work together to gain improvements for secondary teachers.

In getting this far though I do think we can celebrate the fact that there did not have to be a strike - even though it is clear from the planning and preparation that went on that the vast majority of secondary teachers were willing and prepared to take action.

If you'll allow me to divert for a moment, let me share with you some of the planned actions. The Wellington region had planned to march on parliament. A loudspeaker was hired and speakers organised. Auckland branches were to hang banners from motorway bridges and distribute flyers to passing pedestrians. Christchurch branches planned a protest in Cathedral Square and had media and banners organized. Hamilton branches were assigned various stations where they would hold placards and distribute flyers. Otago branches planned a march and a showing of the Alister Barry film A Civilised Society.

Executive had booked billboard space in anticipation of a lengthy campaign and some of you may have seen the interim message on the one at Wellington Airport: PPTA We stand for education. Watch this space. It is situated in the carpark that is on your right as you approach the terminal building, so you will see it if you are flying out of Wellington.

Soon more campaign-related messages will be appearing on the billboard. For a union, the end of one campaign is the start of another!

We must continue to advocate for the profession. It is clear that governments continue to view schools and teachers as silver bullets for all society's ills but that the time, resources and staffing are often missing.

When we asked parents earlier this year what they saw as the main barriers to effective teaching, it was no surprise to find that they were concerned about large class sizes and the lack of individual attention for their children.

Parents want secondary teachers to have what they need to effectively inspire and motivate their children. They said things like:
"We need to make it a job that people want to do."
"Schools need to be places that people want to work in."

They were also concerned that teacher effort is going in the wrong places, to controlling disruption and to paperwork and bureaucratic requirements.

It is increasingly common for teachers to cite an audit-driven culture as a reason for leaving teaching. I call this 'audititis horrendous' and it is distracting teachers from their focus on teaching and learning. I question how much of it is really necessary or whether efforts would be better focused in other directions.

The proponents of this 'audititis' mentality argue that teachers and schools need to be more accountable. Teachers are already over accountable. There are few professions subject to the level of scrutiny and monitoring that teachers undergo - ERO, NZQA, BOT requirements, Ministry of Education, OSH, NZ Teachers Council.

Teachers have personally contacted me to say that this audit culture is the reason they are getting out of teaching. There is simply too much red tape and bureaucracy for them to be effective teachers

It's government that needs to be more accountable in this process. There are only two alternatives: either cut back administration and compliance that is not directly related to learning, or provide schools with the resources and staffing to ensure they can meet all these requirements without breaking teachers' backs.

We must ensure schools receive more support for dealing with difficult students, we must ensure that schools, even though they are grateful for it, are not reliant on their communities for funding to cover the curriculum. National Party education spokesperson Katherine Rich recently released figures saying that schools received half a billion dollars from their communities.

And we must ensure that the burden of assessment and reporting does not become a barrier to teachers bringing out each student's talent and potential.

However, let us all remember that fundamentally we are all in the job because we like working with young people: we admire their energy and enthusiasm, we enjoy (mostly!) the challenge of their unpredictability, and we like to be involved in the business of inspiring them to fulfil themselves in a changing and fascinating world. I have to confess that as an assistant head of a large department, often the happiest thing I did during my day was close the classroom door on the outside world (and all its disruptions) to begin a lesson with one of my classes.

And that almost brings me to the end of my address.

It will be obvious to all of you here that PPTA is a pretty complex organisation and a lot of people work hard to enable us to operate successfully. I want to pay tribute to the Executive that I work with, who, among other things have had to cope with many urgent telephone conferences recently! The people in National Office and the field staff across the country are always on the go, and we thank them for their hard work and loyalty. And I want to pay tribute to the hundreds of branch officers, regional officers and Te Huarahi members on whom we depend.

Lastly, I want to thank you all for being here on this simply wonderful Wellington day. We have a full programme ahead of us, so let us buckle down, do the business and enjoy ourselves at the same time!

Kia kaha!

But on a more sombre note. I want to pay tribute to our whaea, Katherine Sarich., who recently passed away.

E honore ki te Kaihanga o te rangi
Kia maumahara maatou ngaa taonga kua hinga
Ara, e mauhara te taonga o Te Wehengarua/PPTA a Kataraina Sarich.
Haere atu raa te whaea, te kuia, te rangatira, haere, haere. haere
Moe, moe raa te whaea ki too moenga roa
Aroha mai.

Honour to our beliefs
We acknowledge those precious who have gone
We remember the gift to PPTA, Kataraina Sarich
We farewell the whaea, the elder, the chief, go,go,go
Sleep the long sleep

Love.

ENDS

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