When Ben Drury was teaching at a New Zealand primary school, he was stressed, working at the weekends and “chasing his tail” in the evenings.
After more than a decade in the classroom, friends started heading overseas to teach – and Drury followed suit, first to Singapore and then to Korea.
Six years into teaching abroad, he has no plans to move back.
With accommodation, annual flights home and private school tuition for his kids covered, it was a “pretty good gig”, he said.
On top of that, his salary was enough for his wife to be a stay-at-home mum.
“There’s no way we could have done that in New Zealand,” he said.
While the lifestyle perks are attractive, it’s the shift in workload that has proved the real point of difference.
In Korea, Drury gets about six hours of time away from his class every week.
Back home in New Zealand, he got two days a term – or the equivalent of one hour a week.
“Do I feel less stressed where I am now? Yes, for sure.”
Earlier this week a trade unionist wrote for The Spinoff about the rise of public service strike action under the Labour government. Today former Green Party education spokesperson Catherine Delahunty shares her perspective.
I have heard more than a few complaints that teachers did not strike under National, so why are they doing it now? As education spokesperson for the Green Party for nearly nine years, I spent many hours with teachers and their unions, examining legislation which undermined the quality public education system. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that over the last nine years the teaching profession was punchdrunk by a sustained political assault on their mission. Hence the exodus, and the struggle to replace the workforce. The recent teachers strikes are a last-ditch effort from a profession with legitimate expectations of fundamental change, relief and reward.
At the very beginning of the Key government we went straight into urgency to debate their National Standards legislation. This was a disastrous policy which attacked the core principles of teaching and immediately teachers and their unions were forced into battle. Some schools resisted it, and many protested, but the policy of measuring and comparing primary students and schools via league tables became the norm. The damage was done. Remember: National Standards was never debated or discussed with schools and was passed into law under urgency.
Then came Education Minister Hekia Parata’s attempt to increase class size, on the grounds that size doesn’t matter. This was resisted by parents as well as teachers, who knew that larger classes would mean teachers had less time with each child. The combined effort of both groups led to a humiliating back down by the minister, but the fight took up a lot of energy. In the middle of these debacles the Christchurch earthquakes struck and schools became hubs for communities and for children in shock. The government took the opportunity to impose a reform on Christchurch schools which went way beyond closing or repairing the damaged schools and a battle for survival took place, characterised by official mismanagement and insensitivity towards a traumatised school network.
But this was just the beginning of the relentless changes and ideologically driven “reforms”. The charter schools championed by ACT and National were provided with resources other schools could only dream of and a range of experiments of highly variable value were begun. Military school and privatisation at public expense were put in the same basket as tangata whenua efforts for educational self determination, while 90% of Māori students remained in underfunded local English-medium schools. Teachers’ major focus was privatisation rather than wages and conditions.
This all happened while house prices in Auckland went nuts and teacher aides did not get centralised wage funding. Early childhood education was a privatised mess and franchises created baby barns with government encouragement, while Kohanga Reo and Playcentre struggled.
At the Education and Science Select Committee some seemingly random government bills kept turning up but they all facilitated reduced student and teacher representation in the tertiary sector, school boards being able to run several schools, the replacement of the Teachers Council by a new less representative body, the Teachers Code of Ethics becoming the Code of Conduct… on it went. This all took place in a global context of educational “reform” known as the GERM (Global Education Reform Movement), which led to a rewrite of the Education Act and an Update Bill to incorporate the COOL (Communities of Online Learning) concept – basically a digital replacement of the teacher.
The actual rewrites were without vision and did not reflect many student or teacher ideas or a common purpose that lifted the debate. They generated deep concern from people like the Children’s Commissioner and the Ombudsman from a children’s voice and rights perspective. Meanwhile the learning support system continued to be broken and teachers were leaving the profession in despair.
From the first day of full time employment at a school, I was put in charge of “Technology”, not for my design process skills, but for my knowledge of ICT and computers. I became the go to guy in fixing problems with teacher laptops, sound systems and projectors. That soon became student Chromebooks and student iPads. Of course, the school had external support as well, but having someone onsite is incredibly convenient, especially when ICT can be problematic at the drop of a hat, and is becoming more and more relied upon by teachers to bring learning to today’s learners.
You’d think I’d be incredibly excited and enthusiastic about the announcement of the new ‘digital curriculum’ being implemented around the country in 2020. What an opportunity to share my passion and knowledge of ICT with the next generation and prepare them for the world of tomorrow as we delve deeper into the digital age.
However, I’m not.
You see; I’m also a self-taught programmer myself. I design and code websites. This site was built by me, though largely a theme, it has been modified to suit my own tastes and coded to reflect that. I have built my own personal website from the ground up on the back of WordPress. I dabble in CSS (with SASS / LESS), PHP, HTML, and Javascript.
There’s not many teachers (especially primary school) who can say that!
I know that behind every code, there is a whole bunch of trial and error, refreshing, and testing. Programming is largely just problem solving.
My issue is that in my current job, that we are having trouble enough teaching students to read, write, and do math, let alone be able to create a simple script that includes tags, if/else statements, or simple calculations.
In 2015, I taught a class with one-to-one Chromebooks, and we spent the first term learning how to spell our last names, because the school email address for students is firstname.lastname@schoolname.ac.nz.
Then it was time to remember our passwords.
Sure, the curriculum itself isn’t going to be getting students to create complex code or learn any particular language, just like Year 1 students won’t be learning their 8 times tables. However, it would seem to me that certain priorities need to be addressed first – such as basic literacy and numeracy skills. Something tells me that for many students, it will become a matter of running before they can walk.
My other gripe is that the Ministry can announce a digital curriculum and implement it within a few years, and yet there still isn’t an actual Māori / Te Reo Māori curriculum. I guess it shows where the priorities are.
Fun and Games?
So then, what will they be doing? And will it be at all relevant to what they need in the future? Or is it all just a little bit of fun and games and doing something “cool”?
In years 1–8, these two areas are usually implemented within other curriculum learning areas, integrating technology outcomes with the learning area outcomes. These two areas also significantly contribute to students developing the knowledge and skills they need as digital citizens and as users of digital technologies across the curriculum. They also provide opportunities to further develop their key competencies.
It goes on to outline exactly what “Computational thinking for digital technologies” and “Designing and developing digital outcomes” mean for the students, and a lot of it is around raising awareness of what computers are capable, what their limitations are, what problems can be solved with them, and what possibilities there are. It ranges from programming to digital media and safety online.
So it might not all be so doom and gloom – especially considering that for the most part, I already try to integrate digital technology throughout all other areas of learning.
Those of you who have ever been around children and technology, you’ll know at how quickly they pick things up and run with them. I remember my 2 year old nephew taking photos on my phone and then flicking through them all after he’d taken some!
Are you Ready?
I have to give the Ministry some credit here too. Unlike National Standards where they were inflicted upon us without any kind of preparation or support, they have gone above and beyond to provide schools with resources and support through their Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko – Digital Readiness programme. Schools wanting to up-skill and get on board with the new digital curriculum should head over there now and check out the resources on hand to support you and your staff in getting up to speed with the new curriculum area.
This year we celebrate 125 years since the Women’s Suffrage movement. In New Zealand, Kate Sheppard lead the charge to get women the vote.
“Speaking for a new generation, she argued, ‘We are tired of having a “sphere” doled out to us, and of being told that anything outside that sphere is “unwomanly”.’
Sheppard travelled the country, writing to newspapers, holding public meetings and lobbying members of Parliament. Opposition was fierce. As Wellington resident Henry Wright wrote, women were ‘recommended to go home, look after their children, cook their husbands’ dinners, empty the slops, and generally attend to the domestic affairs for which Nature designed them’; they should give up ‘meddling in masculine concerns of which they are profoundly ignorant’.
In 1893 Kate Sheppard and her fellow suffragists gathered the signatures of nearly 32,000 women to demonstrate the groundswell of support for their cause. A 270-m-long petition – then the largest ever presented to Parliament – was unrolled across the chamber of the House with dramatic effect. Despite the opposition of Premier Richard Seddon, the Electoral Act 1893 was passed by both houses of Parliament and became law on 19 September. The news took New Zealand by storm and inspired suffrage movements all over the world.”
But how far have we actually come. I’m not talking about a bunch of young women holding their own comedy special on TV3 and making it out that they still have it bad or celebrating their womanhood.
I’m talking about two unions representing jobs that are mainly made up of women that both decided to go on strike this year. In August, NZEI members voted to strike amid their pay negotiations. 75% of Primary school teachers are female (2017, Education Counts). A month earlier, the Nurses also went on strike. 95% of Nurses are female (2015, NZNO) I’m talking about both these professions, predominantly female, feeling like they are under-valued and over-worked in New Zealand society today.
I’m not for a second suggesting that they are under-valued because they are traditionally and predominantly female based professions. I’m just saying, it is a very interesting point of time in our history, and it might pay to reflect and review where we are as a country a little bit further than pretty smiles and celebrations on the news channels and hyped up comedy galas featuring female comedians.
Recently there has been a lot in the media about teachers pay, and current issues in education. This was somewhat heightened by the August strike – the first primary teachers have been on since 1994.
But why? What’s it all about?
It boils down to one issue.
Workload.
You see; many think (and has been reported on) that it is about pay. To some degree, it has to be about pay. It’s illegal to strike otherwise. But the underlying issue comes down to other factors.
I wouldn’t hesitate to say that there isn’t a single teacher in the country who is in the job for the money. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the job as it currently stands is tough, stressful and does not match the pay. Secondly, most of us have tertiary level and post-grad qualifications and would waltz into other jobs, be it within education, or further afield.
No. We do it for love. We do it because it’s what we love. It might be what we’re good at. It might even be what you’d say a calling.
But it’s not the pay.
But here’s the kicker. The current work conditions are untenable. There are rising needs across the country, lower ability students, learning difficulties, additional needs, more behavioural issues than ever before. An epidemic if you will.
Add to this, there are teachers leaving in droves, and class sizes are going up. This brings more workload, less teaching time, more administration time, more reports, more parents to meet, and more stress.
Classes are being split across the country as relievers become harder and harder to come by. Sick teachers feel they have to come into school to teach.
Add to this current problems in larger city centres where schools can’t get enough teachers for their classes due to travel or property costs.
So, how do we fix this?
Well; what has to happen just to keep the current workforce, is to make it a manageable job and career. Classes of over 30 aren’t going to help this, and so classes need to be no more than 25; preferably closer to 20 than anything else. This will make the job more manageable in terms of time; time with students, time to teach, time to test, and time on admin (reports, meetings and the like). Students will finally get the time and attention they need rather than being lost in the crowd of 30+ others, of which the only way to get attention sometimes is by being the loudest, or by creating trouble and being “out of line”. Students with additional needs often require more support than just what the teachers can currently give them. It was pleasing to see the announcement from Tracy Martin this week some suggested changes to this, including specialist SENCO teachers in each school and screening for learning difficulties such as dyslexia (which has been a long time coming!) Both of these initiatives will assist teachers with dealing with the multitudes of additional needs in their classes, and alleviate some but not all of the workload.
The only way to decrease class sizes is by increasing the number of teachers in each school. Suddenly we not only have to try and retain the current workforce, but we have to recruit or entice ex-teachers back to the job. While some are called to the profession, there is one obvious way to bring more people into this career path.
Show publicly that the profession is valued.
How you do that is up to others in power, but it has been suggested that a salary increase might be one way in which to do this.
And so, in a very round about way we can see that the strike wasn’t just about pay, but also very much more about workload and working conditions in schools that current teachers are facing, and what needs to happen to not only to maintain the numbers in their ranks, but also to be an viable and more importantly, an attractive option and career path for the future.
While a resounding cheer went up at ‘The Stadium’ when given the option of striking for two days, numerous teachers looked at each other and shook their heads. Minutes before we were told of two possible further actions, one that made no sense, and another which was striking for two days. ‘Now shout for which you want…’ Needless to say, without the clarity of thought or time to process either option, the cheer was for the less confusing option.
Crowd mentality.
However, the last thing teachers need is the voice of an Auckland principal speaking for the profession like he owns the place.
His words come from a place of self imposed importance. He’s welcome to his opinion though. So we’ll just make a few notes here.
Alwyn Poole, all alone in a dimly lit corridor, putting up a folded arm barrier between him and the teaching profession.
“The current collective agreement round for teachers takes us back to the 1970s, and teachers and their unions (with the approval of their members) are screwing this up very, very badly. They have already lost even if they “win”.
They have attempted to frame this as a solution to the apparent shortage of teachers. If so, they should provide researched evidence that an increase in pay will solve the problem, not anecdotes from whingeing 25-year-olds complaining about their chosen career.
If New Zealand is to avoid a genuine crisis in education provision for our young people in the near future, a few things need to happen. As a start, the bar to entry for primary school teaching needs to go much higher in terms of prerequisite qualifications in maths, science and English. Lift the entry requirements and create a genuine bar for aspiring teachers to strive for, thus lifting the intake quality and enhancing the reputation of the profession in the eyes of Kiwi families.”
Where do we start. Firstly, don’t discriminate based on age. These 25 year olds are the future teachers we’re trying to keep in the job. And if they’re complaining, you can bet your bottom dollar, the rest of us have been complaining and have given up.
Secondly, raising the bar for entry to primary school teacher training isn’t the answer. As it is, when I trained in the late 2000’s, I was required to maintain a B average across all subjects of my degree. I’ve met some very smart people, with copious degrees, who I wouldn’t want (and who wouldn’t survive) in front of a class. Similarly, I know some people who would make incredible teachers, but whom aren’t academically motivated or interested in pursuing the career because of the university requirements. Kiwi families aren’t asking for smart teachers. They just want good teachers to be the best for their kids. Aspiring teachers shouldn’t need to strive academically for the thing that they know they were born to do. Furthermore, I’m not sure anything I learned in tertiary education (in terms of my Bachelor of Arts) has ever come in useful in my Year 5/6 Primary school classroom. Just saying…
Alwyn goes on… and on…
“Teachers and their unions need to stop whingeing about their jobs. Seriously, nowhere else on the planet does a profession have 12-14 holiday weeks a year. If you have to do some work in those holidays – woolly-boolly – you still have huge choices about how you go about that while in Fiji or Bali.
Stop complaining about the greatest job in the world: working with young people for the good of their future. Have teachers even considered that the children might be just a little upset that they are regarded as a burden and a chore, and that the normal things that go with teaching require a little extra work? How on earth does all this moaning and complaining inspire the next generation into this amazing career? It doesn’t. The unions are making it embarrassing to want to be a teacher.”
Seriously? How much were you paid to say this Alwyn?
You are right… though you used the word ‘else’ incorrectly in that sentence. No where on the planet does a profession have 12-14 holiday weeks a year. Not even in teaching. Seriously. As a principal, with experience, I would have thought you’d know this. Teachers work in their holidays, constantly. They work, it’s just that they don’t have 30 children around them at the time – which is the same as a normal day of work for most New Zealanders!
Obviously principals are getting paid too much if they’re taking holidays to Fiji and Bali all the time. Not sure I’ve ever had the chance in my nine years of teaching, nor can imagine taking work with me if I did.
I guess if we all only had 15 students in our class (as is the case for Alwyn and his staff), we might not have to work as much during the holidays. That’s right… Alwyn is a principal of two charter schools in Auckland, and his schools only have 48 students and 180 students in them. Both have the same website and school logo design. Brilliant.
I mean, let’s look at other professions that might be more appealing. Doctor? Lawyer? ICT?
All of these have significant pay associated with them. The average wage for a GP is $97,000. Lawyers in large firms around $87K per annum (after four years experience). ICT is a wide field of possible jobs, but an IT Manager gets between $90-$130K each year.
In comparison, the average primary school teacher gets $56K. I continually tell people, you don’t become a teacher for the pay. Nor should you. But come on. How are you meant to suggest that anyone take that kind of pay for this kind of job, and expect words like ‘love’ and ‘passion’ to pick up the slack?
Shirley Maihi, showing what teaching is actually about – arms wrapped in aroha for the kids
In response, this was written by Shirley Maihi, a decile 1 principal from South Auckland.
“In a column published on Stuff on Tuesday, Mt Hobson Middle School principal Alwyn Poole said in focusing negotiations on pay, teachers and unions were “screwing this up very, very badly“.
Responding to this, Maihi said the demands for a pay increase were “absolutely right”.
When teachers’ pay competed with other sectors in the past, people were attracted to the profession, she said – New Zealand needed to get back to that point.
“It’s impossible to get staff,” she said. She has been advertising for one position since November and is yet to get a single applicant. Two other vacancies also lie dormant.
This only made teachers’ lives more stressful, she said. If a class had to be split when no relievers could be found, teachers might end up with five or six extra kids in their class.
This was on top of a workload that already caused “huge mental stress”, Maihi said.
Teachers spent much of their time dealing with social issues before they could even get to delivering an education, she said.
A teacher could not expect to start the year with 25 students and see the same 25 children at the end, so a lot of time was spent resettling children and getting them ready to learn.
That’s before the extra time they spent pouring into sports, study centres and after school care, and the hours spent working in the evenings.
As for holidays, she scoffed at Poole’s suggestion that if teachers had to work in the holidays “you still have huge choices about how you go about that while in Fiji or Bali”.
“Most of my teachers are trying to pay mortgages or living expenses,” she said. “They’re not going abroad.”
For most teachers, time away from school was an opportunity for family time that was sorely missed during term time, she said.
And – yes – for work.
“‘Holidays’ – in inverted commas – are not holidays.”
Finlayson Park ran its professional development courses in the first week of mid-year holidays, and the second week was spent preparing and setting up the classroom. Teachers might have a day or two to do shopping, but that was about it, Maihi said.
Over the summer break, she encouraged staff to take four weeks away from school work.
“Most other professions get four weeks off – so do we.”
Alexia Cochrane has wanted to be a teacher since she was five years old.
Dedication, numerous part-time jobs and a $65,000 student loan helped get her through years of study and within reach of teaching her own class of young minds.
But like many aspiring teachers, the 22-year-old Waikato University master’s student says recent teacher strikes and talk of a crisis in education have her questioning her career path.
“I’ve met people with such a passion and drive for teaching who, once they go teaching, say they may only last three or four years,” Cochrane said.
“That’s devastating, because kids deserve people who are fully invested in them.”
“Teaching as a profession seems to be undervalued and I keep asking myself how long can I keep defending my passion?”
Earlier this week 
Sheppard travelled the country, writing to newspapers, holding public meetings and lobbying members of Parliament. Opposition was fierce. As Wellington resident Henry Wright wrote, women were ‘recommended to go home, look after their children, cook their husbands’ dinners, empty the slops, and generally attend to the domestic affairs for which Nature designed them’; they should give up ‘meddling in masculine concerns of which they are profoundly ignorant’.
I’m talking about two unions representing jobs that are mainly made up of women that both decided to go on strike this year. In August, NZEI members voted to strike amid their pay negotiations. 75% of Primary school teachers are female (
You see; many think (and has been reported on) that it is about pay. To some degree, it has to be about pay. It’s illegal to strike otherwise. But the underlying issue comes down to other factors.
Show publicly that the profession is valued.
