High school teachers will start their rolling strikes on Wednesday when Year 9 students have to stay at home. On Thursday there will be no Year 11 classes and next week Year 10 students will have no classes on one day. To go on strike means that teachers will not teach at all but a rolling strike means that teachers will refuse to teach one class level on a particular day. The rolling strikes will not affect Years 12 and 13 classes.
High school teachers want more money, smaller classes – fewer than 30 students in each class – and more money for middle managers like Heads of Department. The government has offered $1,000 this year, a 2.5% increase over the next two years, and some extra money for middle managers but teachers say it is not enough. It is hard to encourage young graduates to become teachers, it is hard to find teachers who want to be Heads of Department and it is hard to keep teachers in New Zealand. Many of them go overseas to teach where the pay is better.
At the moment, salaries for new teachers start at $31,305. After five years, that increases to $44,348.
The Minister of Education, Anne Tolley, says that there is no more money. New Zealand is suffering from the economic recession, many people have lost jobs and many people have had a pay freeze which means their pay stays the same. Some people argue that teachers have long holidays but teachers say they work long hours with lesson preparation and marking. They also say that students are more difficult to teach these days because they are badly behaved.
For more about teachers’ strikes, listen to Sept 15th 2010
Questions
1. Do you think teachers are well paid?
2. How do you think parents feel about these rolling strikes?
3. Primary teachers are paid the same as secondary teachers. Do you think this is fair?