19 September, 2011
PPTA junior vice president Doug Clark said the association would work closely with members, Christchurch secondary schools and the Ministry of Education to minimise the impact of job losses after the city’s devastating earthquakes.
The ministry releases final staffing figures for Christchurch secondary schools today (Tuesday).
“If the minister is correct in saying 170 full time teachers will be lost, we expect a significant number of these to be in the secondary education sector,” said Clark. Clark said 4600 students had originally enrolled in schools outside of Christchurch following the February 22 earthquake, but this had dropped to 3500.
“Job losses in schools after a catastrophic event will result in a slow recovery for schools leaving them in a poor position to offer a balanced curriculum if students decide to return to Christchurch secondary schools,” he said.
PPTA called for a moratorium on teacher staffing for 2012, but the minister only agreed to teacher numbers staying the same until the end of this year.
He said teacher numbers would have stayed the same until the end of 2011 regardless as GMFS* means roll-generated teacher staffing is guaranteed for the full school year.
“Guaranteeing to carry staffing numbers through until the end of the year is not a specific gift for Christchurch,” he said.
“The cruel reality of Tomorrow’s Schools is a drop in roll often results in teacher cut backs, even when the cause of the roll fall was not created by schools or teachers,” he said.
“Tolley’s call for schools to make up for losses from their operational budgets would be hard as funding is already very tight and schools are struggling,” said Clark
“The PPTA empathise with teachers and schools who face continued difficulties in post-quake Christchurch. We will work alongside members by allocating a staffing specialist to each secondary school where job losses can not be managed by attrition alone,” he said.
Contact: PPTA acting president, Doug Clark – 021 806 337; Communications Advisor Kate Shuttleworth 021 541 261
*Guaranteed Minimum Funded Staffing - the way the Ministry of Education calculates staffing for schools
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