PPTA

PPTA president Robin Duff's address to the 2011 New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) Annual Conference.

Greetings to you all and as I have just said - special greetings to our colleagues from Christchurch, Greymouth and now the Western Bay who continue to struggle with the aftermath of national disasters.

Business as usual for global financial systems

Last time I spoke to Annual Conference was in 2008   when we were still coming to terms with the biggest financial disaster since the great depression of the 1930s.  As we learned about the shady and unethical dealings of banks, finance companies and audit firms, financiers and politicians we waited for justice.  Perhaps it was naive but, at the time,  we imagined that the perpetrators of  the various scams and frauds that turned out to constitute "business as usual" for the global financial system  would be rounded up and if not publicly  executed, at least subject to some public humiliation and be required to make amends.

It has not happened.

There hasn't been a single prosecution of the main Wall Street players because the American government has instead agreed to "deferred prosecution agreements” which means that court cases will not pursued providing the companies agree to investigate and report their own crimes.

New Zealanders exposed to similar shady deals

In this country, crooked financiers have stripped over $20 billion from New Zealanders for which crimes they have received a slap with a wet bus ticket and a tax cut.

Wall Street banks continue to pay huge bonuses out of taxpayer bailout money while at the same time resisting the regulation that is needed if global citizens are to be able to trust financial institutions ever again.   As the Wall Street protesters put it:  “You get bailouts; we get sold out.”

Debt crisis reconstructed as the responsibility of the public sector

And sold out we are.   How can it be that after all this excess and greed and huge government bailouts, the debt crisis has been reconstructed as  the responsibility of the public sector?  In Greece, public servants are being tossed out of jobs because Greece apparently has a “bloated public sector.” Excuse me?  Shouldn’t that be a “a bloated world financial sector?”

Teachers, nurses, firefighters, civil servants made scapegoats for financial crisis

According to our minister of finance, he has only just got started with the public sector in NZ.   So … teachers, nurses, firefighters and civil servants are to be held accountable for the financial crisis and indirectly, the young, the sick and those who, for various reasons, find themselves dependent on the state,  are going to feel the lash.   The logic runs like this:

"To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and then call  whatever you hit the target.    "

Incredibly, the very same economists who never saw the crisis coming, continue to be wheeled out to offer advice on the future. It’s not like we haven’t seen this snake oil before.   What’s their advice this time?  Privatise, sell state assets, cut jobs in the public sector and introduce user pays into health and education.

 

Same old…same old.

The advice being given by the IMF to Greece is not about saving Greece (or Italy or Spain) it is about sacrificing Greek citizens in order to save the very banks that caused this crisis in the first place.

Wall Street banks are estimated to have $2.7 trillion riding on European banks which pretty much explains why the IMF is prepared to see Greece destroyed.

New Zealand under the hammer at the behest of financial markets

NZ government debt is actually quite low  and doesn't justify the financial stringencies that are being called for.

Why we are under the hammer is because private debt is high enough to pose a risk for banks.  As a result the financial markets are squealing that that the government needs to wring more money from New Zealanders in case it is needed to  bail out our banks.  As an aside, there is actually one bank that won’t need bailing out because it didn’t fall for the irresponsible “money-go-round” schemes and it’s the one New Zealanders own, Kiwi Bank.

For how much longer though?   The bloated financial sector is already slavering like Pavlov’s dogs at the prospect of the fire sale of assets built on the sacrifices of generations of New Zealanders.

I come back to the question posed earlier. Is it really credible that teachers, nurses, policemen and civil servants are to be made scapegoats for the antics and excess of the financial community?  If you want to know where the real responsibility lies, I urge you to watch the movie Insidejob which lays bare the extent of the political collusion with the financial community.  I want you to watch this trailer.

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To fund bonuses for those at the top – working conditions are reduced

Employees have another thing to thank the financial community for and that is the ruthless slash and burn employment culture. Hours of work and job insecurity have been increased for everyone, wages and conditions are constantly being driven down  and why?  To fund obscene bonuses to those at the top.  In 2010,  financial sector bonuses hit $135 billion, up 6% from 2009 and that was taxpayers' money.

6% eh?  Consider the hysteria that greeted PPTA’s opening claim of 4% - and that was 4% of teacher's wage which doesn't have six figures.  What they need actually is a national collective agreement where rates are set openly and transparently.

Perhaps, in the spirit of public service we should offer our bargaining assistance?

In New Zealand, Paul Reynolds the CEO of Telecom receives 50 times what the average Telecom employee receives.  And most Telecom employees are now contractors without any employment protection and are obliged to purchase their own vans and equipment.

Of course the economists can explain all this away - 'people with utility maximizing capabilities leverage their skills in the free market and are recompensed accordingly."

Rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer

We would say: the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Further, we would say that this has happened with the active connivance and compliance of governments throughout the West who have been more interested in pandering to international money markets than looking after the citizens for whom they are responsible.

But is this the politics of envy?

Are we short, smelly onion weeds just jealous of the tall poppies?

Teachers care about people, teachers want well funded schools.

Except that – and this is something that the business community cannot seem to grasp when they roll out their performance pay recipe for teachers - we just don’t care about money in the same way they do.  We want to see our schools well funded and set up as pleasant places to work and learn and we want to be paid amounts that reflect the value of the job we do and that are high enough to recruit and retain teachers, but the idea that anyone goes into teaching to make their fortune is ridiculous – especially when making that fortune involves taking money away from colleagues, friends and students.   That’s greedy and unethical.

That doesn’t stop the financial community from believing it has a right to impose its employee control model on every other social institution   - all the while resisting attempts by governments to restrain their excesses through regulation.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that the least trustworthy group of individuals on the planet would design auditing systems that assume everyone else is on the take -  just like them. And that’s what’s happened.

The result of more and more data is people feel less secure and more suspicious

Recently I came across a report from an American research group, Public Agenda which, in conjunction with the Kettering Foundation, has produced an explanation for the paradox of why the relentless obsession with measurement, auditing and accountability makes people feel less secure not more.

It identifies four misunderstandings that the bean counters have about public expectations for accountability.

One, providing more and more data so people can compare various options doesn't increase confidence but makes people less trusting and more suspicious.  Not only are the numbers often confusing and overwhelming  but everyone suspects that the figures are likely to have been assembled so as to produce the best possible effect.

Screeds of data, that most people have no intention subjecting to statistical analysis, simply creates an uncomfortable feeling that one is being conned.

Education systems need more than data they need an open and ethical environment in which to operate

As well, and Einstein put this best –

"not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted".

When parents are asked what they want for their children from schools, the answer is invariably something like  a well-rounded, confident, adaptable individual who gets on well with others.   And those qualities are better predictors of success in all aspects of adult life than a single-minded focus on comparative academic achievement.  In the end such data tells parents only what one cohort of students has achieved – it doesn’t say how well your child will do.

The second reason suggested to explain the paradox of more data leading to less public trust is that data without a strong ethical framework can be used just as effectively to mislead as to inform.  So setting up a school system  with competition as the main driver, as has happened with Tomorrow's School's, is asking for bending of the rules in numerous ways, so we get:
•    less than honest practices around zoning:
•    use of the maximum roll mechanisms to cherry pick students,
•    charging parents more than is necessary to keep out the “riff raff” and to make the school more marketable;
•    putting beginning teachers on job trials rather than supporting them into the profession and;
•    subjecting teachers to intense scrutiny and pressure to lift grades.

The research indicates that the public is very aware that accountability on its own means nothing - it has to operate in an open and ethical culture.  And trust and genuine responsibility has to be built and the leadership has to come from the top – from our politicians.

People want to connect with people, relationships count

Thirdly, the survey reveals that members of the public much prefer responsiveness to being buried in data. They want to know there is someone they can talk to in an organisation who will take their concerns seriously and endeavor to address them.  People are not computers; they want to connect with real people rather than being left to interrogate pages of data.

This finding resonates with our own survey in which parents expressed their frustration with the traditional secondary school report evening which is often more like a cattle auction than an exercise in communication.

Education is a joint responsibility, we all want the best for our students

And fourthly - the one to warm all teachers' hearts - most parents want to help and are more than willing to accept responsibility for their children. This is in spite of the constant political and media rhetoric that pits parents against teachers and holds teachers solely responsible for everything that happens to students.  The accountability culture needs someone to blame so achievement, teen pregnancy, bullying and even suicide are all assumed to be solely a school responsibility.

How many times do we hear a complex social situation summarized in the media by the trite and lazy phrase “the system let me/him/her down"   as if that is some sort of answer.

If we all own the problem we can all work together on a strategy to solve it

Contrast attitudes here with Norway’s response to information that showed their PISA scores were falling. Rather than unleashing a witch hunt to punish teachers for results that are probably largely explained by population change, the government there focussed on what the country could do about it.

There were no covert meetings of government representatives and educational agencies to parcel out blame. Instead they called a meeting which included as well as the usual suspects, a range of interested parties including parents, union reps and opposition MPs.  Everyone took ownership of the problem and everyone was prepared to work together on a strategy.

Note the use of the word strategy not necessarily solution because just as not everything can be counted, not every problem has a readily-available guaranteed, simple, cost-neutral quick fix.  Sometimes it is a case of making the best decision possible in the circumstances and then keeping it open to constant review and refinement.

Andreas Schleicher, who is special advisor on education Slide  17 policy to the OECD Secretary General and one of the driving forces behind PISA, attributes part Canada’s recent success to the way it has handled educational reforms.  I quote:

“The interesting story is how the successful provinces were able to get the main stakeholders on board, teachers and their unions included, and how they got professionals, not bureaucrats, to implement the reforms on the frontline. Significant efforts were devoted to winning over teachers, schools and unions to its vision of reform.”

This is why PPTA is promoting our “ping pong” paper.

Value students, value teachers, value schools and value education

We have a regrettable tendency in New Zealand to treat education like a sports fixture.  We pick the teams and line up for a good stoush and then assess the winners, losers and injuries:  PPTA v Trevor Mallard; Anne Tolley v NZEI; Maori parents v schools; tertiary providers v secondary schools and so on.

Except education isn’t a game and it is reprehensible to use it for public entertainment and/or distraction or, more cynically, as a means of shoring up political capital.    This game in which our children must inevitably be the losers.

What is the effect on a child’s confidence and enthusiasm for learning when it is accompanied by a commentary that directs a constant stream of invective against their schools and their teachers?

How does the nation benefit from a process that involves regular denigration of public teachers and schools?

It isn’t a game and we are calling on the politicians to be grown-ups and to “put the bats down”.  As we say value students, value teachers, value schools and value education.   We have gone further and made our case into the following video.

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We are hoping you will carry this message to all regions of New Zealand.

Cooperation theme running throughout this conference

The theme of cooperation is one we will be returning to throughout this conference.

It is replicated in our paper on economics, There Is Always A Reasonable Alternative (TIAARA); not TINA (There Is No Alternative).

For too long economic policy has been the preserve of a self-interested elite determined to protect their own financial interests regardless of the effect on others. To justify it they call on TINA.

We are saying that there are acceptable alternatives but they all pretty much involve belt tightening for the rich. Obama has started the process with the Buffet tax named after the uber-rich, Warren Buffet.  Currently only 53% of American pay income tax!

While the figure is better in New Zealand we must give full credit to Gareth Morgan who, along with Susan St. John, is promoting policies that require the rich to pay their share.

Judging by the public reaction to Wall Street protests (which are rapidly spreading to other centres throughout out the world) public tolerance for tax avoidance may be coming to an end.  This should give some of the TINA advocates cause for thought.   Mob rule is an ugly thing and it might be better to start trying to build a nation based on principles of decency, fairness and equality rather than risk complete social breakdown.

There Is Always A Reasonable Alternative (TIAARA) - 2011 conference paper

Supporting teachers to do their jobs - teachers’ working conditions are student’s learning conditions

Our conference paper on negotiations, Supporting teachers to do their jobs – there’s got to be a better way, outlines the deficiencies in the adversarial approach to bargaining and calls for a more constructive bargaining environment that better supports educational change.  Teachers’ working conditions are student’s learning conditions so attacking teachers is, in effect, attacking education.

Far be it for me to praise the ministry of education but we need to acknowledge their willingness to work with us this year to complete variations which affect only a small number of members but are important nevertheless.  They are:
•     a variation so people who have not in the past had their teacher registration recognised for salary purposes will;
•    A variation to manage the process of RTLB transformation.

And we are also making good progress on some special provisions for teachers facing surplus staffing in Christchurch.  If it is possible for us to collaborate on small things, we must be able to work together on bigger issues.

Supporting teachers to do their jobs: There’s got to be a better way - 2011 conference paper

Class size reductions - let's get the process started

If class size is irrelevant to learning why do so many politicians and policy advisers send their own children to private schools which market themselves on the strength of their minuscule class sizes?   And if class size is neither here nor there, why don’t ERO and/or the ministry of education collect data for parents on class sizes in their local school? As we have noted they collect data on everything else in a school – why not class size then?

We understand better than most that reducing class size is a very expensive option and that to be effective it has to be accompanied by appropriate professional development, but that doesn’t mean that the process shouldn’t get  started – albeit in a small way. A number of secondary schools are facing surplus staffing this year (or CAPNAs as we know them).

Instead of paying these teachers off, it would make better economic sense to retain them  in the system to support class size reduction.

Class size: The struggle continues - 2011 conference paper

Educative mentoring - empowering and supporting teachers

The paper on educative mentoring brings the idea of managed collaborative change into staffroom.  Mentoring empowers and supports teachers to make changes in their practice that lead to better learning.   It echoes the comment from the OECD quoted earlier. Real change can only happen with the active consent of the individual.  Anything else creates surface compliance and avoidance behaviour.

There is wisdom in the old joke about how many social workers it takes to change a light bulb (one, but the light bulb has to want to change)

Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou . . . Educative mentoring - 2011 conference paper

NCEA workload and initiatives at the secondary/tertiary interface

Our annual paper on NCEA has a broader scope this year and looks at a range of initiatives underway for the senior school - all of which need careful watching for unintended effects.  Regardless of the good intentions, we are not seeing the initiative under the youth guarantee heading as doing much more than funding marketing campaigns by tertiary institutions in order to poach secondary students. Forget the rhetoric about disengaged students – no way is the money going anywhere near the students who are Not in Employment, Education or training or NEETS as they are known.

Since this paper was written there have been some pleasing announcements to support teachers with the standards alignment workload.  As well as the four more teacher-only days we anticipate some further comment in the minister’s address on the proposals from the NZQA Workload Advisory Group.

Accelerated change in the senior secondary school - 2011 conference paper

Constitutional change- continuing democratic representation

Last, but not least, we do have some constitutional business to attend to so that members continue to be adequately and democratically represented in cases where schools establish new geographical sites.

Constitutional amendment - 2011 conference paper

On top of that, our conference this year will welcome a number of guest speakers - some from political parties and some not but still likely to be intensely political in their addresses.

Make "we stand for education" meaningful this election

We meet this year against the backdrop of the election and the signals are that it is an election that will change this country - perhaps irreparably.

While no government in recent times has shown much backbone in standing up to the global financial forces that are forcing an agenda of inequality, we are now very close to sacrificing what is left of our national sovereignty.   At the same time, as I have alluded to already, nothing is a forgone conclusion.  Citizens all around the world, and here, are mobilising against the narrow and unlovely agenda that is  ripping nations apart and destroying peoples' lives on an unprecedented scale. When we say we stand for education it has to mean something!

As ever, we have weighty issues to consider, and a busy and challenging conference programme.  I look forward to much debate, discussion, discourse and deliberation and of course decisions and to catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.

Once again welcome to you all.
No reira tena koutou,  Tena koutou, Tena koutou katoa