Secondary teachers balloted on Teaching Council boycott

Legislation passed by Parliament last night removes all elected members from the Teaching Council. From next month, all members of the Teaching Council will be appointed by the Minister of Education, and there will be no requirement for any members to be teachers.

“This law means the Council will no longer be governed by a majority of democratically elected teacher representatives, but by individuals cherry-picked by the Minister,” says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president.

“This move, along with transferring responsibility for setting professional standards from the Council to the Minister, is a disturbing and unacceptable level of political interference.

“Our national executive has decided to ballot all members to see if they want to boycott appointment to the Teaching Council. If they do, this would mean that if the Minister asked a secondary teacher who was a PPTA member to sit on the Council, they would refuse.”

Chris Abercrombie said the changes to the Teaching Council, particularly when considered alongside the recent removal of the chair and deputy chair of the Medical Council, and the Ministerial decision to remove the majority of nurse representatives from the Nursing Council, were extremely concerning.

“This Government is determined to have its way in education and health, arrogantly disregarding the voices of the profession rather than meaningfully engaging with and supporting them.”

The ballot will open this Friday and close at the end of next week.