PPTA

Having just read Teacher in a strange land: Regular Teachers, Regular Schools  it got me thinking about conferences/forums and how often (when I do go to these events) I get to meet 'regular teachers'. It certainly can be an issue, who speaks for teachers - who the experts are and who nominated those experts to speak for and/or about teachers/teaching? An issue that extends beyond the boundaries of conferences and forums to areas such as submissions processes and the workings of advisory groups.

Although, you could add 'who is a regular teacher and what is a regular school' given the number of extraordinary teachers working in extraordinary schools :-)

PPTA National office this week has annual conference on the collective mind. Conference is where the elected representatives of NZ secondary teachers get to discuss and work towards a better secondary school education system.  PPTA Annual Conference is 18-20 October  - the programme is online and conference papers include:

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By David

I am a New Zealand trained teacher who was lured over the Tasman by the need to live in a country that respects and values education.

Throughout Australia, various levels of government are injecting over $16 Billion into schools in a program called the Building Education Revolution. We have new halls, gyms and state of the art classrooms in our public schools.

The Digital Education Revolution (valued at over $2 Billion) is delivering laptops, broadband and essential ICT services to schools – often resulting in a ratio of 1 computer to one student.

As a teacher in Australia I feel empowered by salaries that can surpass $80,000 per year (although this is still inadequate) and the security of ongoing professional development from a well-organised State Government.

One day I would love to return to my homeland of New Zealand, and see my family live the Kiwi childhoods that my wife and I enjoyed whilst growing up.

There really is no place like New Zealand – believe me.

But the idea of returning to teach in New Zealand is laughable.

I am not prepared to sacrifice my career and all that I have worked for to live as an undervalued, overworked educator living on a pauper’s wage.

Don’t give in to the insulting and belittling rhetoric of John Key and Anne Tolley. It is time for the teachers of New Zealand to stand up for what is fair.

So from one former member of PPTA to those who have done the right thing and continue to believe in the New Zealand educational system, I have one request. Please don’t back down.

Keep fighting for the pay and conditions that our profession requires to thrive.

Kia kaha!

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Entrenchment refers to a clause in the NZEI primary teachers' collective agreement.  This clause is an agreement between NZEI and the MoE, it means that any increases in pay made to PPTA members will also be offered to NZEI members. 

If  NZEI members accept the offer, being taken out to them by their executive, they will receive an immediate pay-rise.

PPTA members  have rejected the miserly mixed up offers of the Ministry - and have said they will continue to fight for improved teaching and learning conditions in secondary schools. 

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The recent OECD education ministers’ meeting held in Paris on November 4^th and 5^th was unusual for three reasons:  for the first time in its ten-year history it had permitted a brief union presence in the form of Education International (EI) and TUAC, the trade union group that advises the OECD ; the morning session on Thursday was chaired by the New Zealand Minister of Education, Hon. Anne Tolley, and PPTA was there!

As an organisation the OECD works actively to push privatization in member countries more for the benefit of multi-national corporates and its own OECD consultancy arm than for students.  Its prime tool for influencing education policies in member countries is its international achievement tests such as PISA (Programme for International Assessment). Even though the PISA comparisons ought to be treated with great caution for the reasons discussed in PPTA’s conference paper, Building on excellence: How to make a great schooling system even better, education ministers seem to be in thrall to the data.  The OECD creates a market for its testing products by keeping nations in a perpetual state of performance anxiety about the simplistic global rankings it extrapolates from the tests.

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Did they listen to a word – did they listen to a single argument over those 12 days of bargaining? 

It doesn't sound like it! 

This government is showing total disregard for the work teachers do and the issues they face daily.

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