We support the teacher strikes

"People would be shocked if they knew how under-resourced schools are"

We are 💯% behind the decision of New Zealand teachers to strike today.

Our teachers deserve to be paid at a level that truly reflects the huge value that we, as parents and as a society, place on their incredibly important role of educating our precious tamariki and helping to grow the next generation of New Zealanders into well rounded, literate and numerate adults.

🗣️ While we absolutely support their pay claim, we are also heartened to hear teachers CONTINUING to call for "more teacher aides, more release time and more funding for professional training"

📚 We know that our teachers desperately want to turn the tide on New Zealand's falling literacy and numeracy rates. Without more teacher aides, more release time and especially more funding for professional training, that is evidence based and aligns with best practice, they have zero chance of doing this.

👉 Right now, we hear of teachers spending countless unpaid hours researching Structured Literacy and learning about the Science of Reading. Many of these are young teachers, who have recently graduated from their initial teacher education and, despite the many thousands of dollars they have spent earning their degree, have not been taught up to date methods of teaching reading, writing and spelling.

👉 Right now, we hear of teachers spending their OWN money on professional development on Structured Literacy, that is not funded by the Ministry of Education, and their OWN money buying and creating resources that align with Structured Literacy.

👉Right now, we hear of school communities holding bake sales and sausage sizzles so they can afford to purchase basic resources that they need for teaching literacy in the way that we know will move the needle for the most learners

We hope that the Minister of Education Jan Tinetti MP and the Ministry of Education NZ have their listening ears👂on and come to the table with an offer that allows our teachers to continue in the work that they are so passionate about and enables them to do their best for our precious ākonga.
Read the RNZ article - striking teachers in their own words, here.