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Viewpoint of Kate Gainsford, President of the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA), on the apparent value of secondary school teachers to the government.
July 2010
Genuine value
Why is it that if you want the rich to work harder you pay them more but if you want everyone else to work harder you pay them less?
Taking into consideration inflation and the coming tax change, the government’s offer of 1.5% now and 1% next year would mean the take home pay of a teacher at the top of the basic scale would actually buy 4% less in July 2012 than it did in July 2009.
Meanwhile, prime minister John Key has explained that the reason for the proposed tax cuts and GST increase is that people in the top tax bracket are “core and critical categories” for the economy “without those people” he says “all the rest of us will either have less (sic) people paying tax or fundamentally less services that they provide. They include doctors, entrepreneurs often, scientists, engineers, lawyers, accountants, school principals and nurses”.
Well that puts us in our place.
Teachers are not “core and critical categories” and would be no loss to the country if they left. If they are going to stay they need to know that the prime minister thinks that the work they do has a minus value to the economy.
That should cheer teachers up as they deal with the behemoth that the curriculum alignment of standards has turned into. What the ministry described as a simple exercise has wound up as extra workload. No surprises there. As well as all the regular assessment work schools have to deal with, they must now take account of:
- the requirement that all level one standards be at level six of the curriculum, and the elimination of lower level standards. The net result is all but 21 standards have changed significantly.
- the decision to make all curriculum-referenced standards achievement standards.
- the requirement that no more than three standards in a subject be externally assessed.
- the new literacy and numeracy requirements, with alternative pathways via unit standards.
- the introduction of course endorsement for all levels from the start of 2011.
- a new MNA (managing national assessment) process that focuses on school self-review.
- the pending changes to university entrance requirements, due to be consulted on later this year.
- new developments in the secondary-tertiary-workplace area, such as trades and service academies and Youth Guarantees.
Add to that the extra moderation that has been dumped on some schools and teachers. Many could now be forgiven for thinking they are labourers indentured to NZQA.
And what is the response of their employers to this soul-destroying increase in workload? A claim to restrict teachers’ entitlement to guaranteed non-contact time and an expansion in the demands around call-back days. This week PPTA
received a letter from the minister of education refusing to approve two teacher-only days this year to help teachers get on top of the standards alignment process.
Members have asked nothing more than that they be made a fair and reasonable offer for settlement. They want one that keeps up with the cost of living, enables schools to retain and recruit teachers and goes some way to addressing at least some of their concerns about health and safety, equity and professional learning.
The complete failure of our employers to respond to that request sends a powerful message to secondary teachers, and indeed anyone thinking of becoming a secondary teacher, that their work is not valued.
The irony in this is that teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions so if you don’t value teachers then the reality is that you don’t value students and you certainly don’t value education.
Published in the July 2010 issue of the PPTA News
 PPTA News archive
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