PPTA

The 2007-2008 year was notable for the renegotiation of PPTA’s five collective agreements: secondary teachers, secondary principals, area school teachers, area school principals and the adult and community education (ACE) coordinators and tutors. ...    PPTA remains concerned about the inability of the Ministry of Education to adequately support senior secondary curriculum development. It only responds when this lack of support turns into public failure via the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). After the 2005-6 NCEA debacle it was able to fund a national coordinator for subject associations and 24 senior subject advisors. By October 2007, the ministry had judged that the crisis was over, and withdrew the funding for both the subject association coordinator and the senior subject advisors.

(2008) This paper looks at the case made for Tomorrow’s Schools in 1989 and examines where we are now. It asks whether the policy has delivered improvements in respect of educational achievement, self-management, fairness, democracy and value for the taxpayer’s dollar.  It notes there is no evidence of educational gains attributable to the Tomorrow’s Schools revolution and that there are signs that self-management in a competitive environment has had the effect of boosting mistrust, parochialism, duplication and waste. Tomorrows Schools

This paper reviews the existing staffing formula, its problems, and how it might be changed to meet a more needs-based model. The staffing-related needs of modern secondary schools are discussed, and overseas practices and best-practice within New Zealand considered.

A PPTA Annual Conference would not be the same without an NCEA paper for delegates to consider. Successive – almost annual – papers since the early 1990s provide an opportunity to track the union’s evolving approach to standards-based assessments for qualifications, something the PPTA has supported in principle since the late 1960s. The reality always presents much more complex questions, and the union has struggled since the early 1990s to find a comfortable stance that can be supported by the vast majority of members.

The Auckland region has prepared this paper which looks at the considerable financial pressure on members required to live in areas where there are rising housing costs. Some are major urban centres where high and rising population density and limited housing development is creating above-average pressures on housing costs. Some are semi-urban areas with high property prices driven by factors more related to location.

This paper looks at the heavy workload carried out by secondary teachers and seeks to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of the impact this has. It asks if the PPTA should undertake research to answer questions on the duties required of secondary teachers and the health and safety and workload implications of these. The paper proposes to establish information on practices in this area before the association considers the 2010 collective agreement negotiations.

The Hutt Valley region has prepared this paper to draw attention to the increasing incidence of disruptive, anti-social behaviour in New Zealand secondary schools and the need to address this trend through a changed staffing formula. It considers the problems caused by “high risk” students in secondary schools and calls for a funding model that better supports them.

Note: the Hutt Valley region made changes to the recommendations in this paper - the new recommendations are in this document

The requirements that provisionally registered teachers (PRTs) have to fulfill have increased significantly over the years, as secondary teaching has become more complex and demanding. This paper looks at the serious implications current PRT dissatisfaction has on the likelihood of many young teachers staying in the profession. It calls for adequate resources for professional development and guidance during the registration process.