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As many as 50,000 kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers and principals will take industrial action on Thursday.
South Canterbury teacher Jo Bennett shares the reasons behind her decision to strike on Thursday.
“I don’t want to go on strike, but there is no conflict in my mind.
“I need to do what I can to see education in New Zealand upheld with the mana it deserves.
“Lives depend on it. The future of our country depends on it. You only need to look down your street or scroll through the headlines to see what happens when education is not valued. In 2023, we are standing on the edge of a mighty unstable cliff.
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“I look around at my colleagues and see many are on survival mode. There are tears, most in private, before having to suck it up, push it down, and face those little ones with a smile.
“The nails scratching down the blackboard are fair worn to bloody stubs. It’s only week seven, term one.
“Everyday I see teachers mopping up after parents who, for a myriad of reasons, are not up to the task. I guess it has been drummed into us that we may be that ‘one person’ who could change the direction of someone’s life. Tasked with this double-edged sword they give and give relentlessly, often at the expense of their own health.
“Not long ago a teacher could have taken a sick day without a second thought, but over the past couple of years relievers have become rare as hen’s teeth. A day off often means doubling up classes (putting colleagues under more pressure), distributing your students throughout different classes (as above), or in worst case sending students home.
“These situations happen regularly. All is not well. It hasn’t been well for a while, and if we don’t stand up now? It is only going to get worse.
“Like the seventh wave, a tricky class used to come along irregularly enough for teachers to maintain their sanity and humour. In 2023 the opposite is status quo.
“You could cope when there were one or two ‘characters’ in a class of 26 – the rest of them helped the others along. But now, for whatever reason, sometimes I will go into a class where a quarter of the students have learning or behavioural needs.
“These mokopuna require extra time, attention and energy that a teacher cannot provide on their own. It’s not just about pay. It is about more support for students and smaller class sizes. Broken teachers are a symptom of a broken system.
“It is a tough game, and one that in our part of the world doesn’t garner anywhere near as much respect as it deserves. Money talks. It speaks about what we do and don’t value. For many the emotional costs can’t add up to the return, and these wonderful people are leaving the vocation that they love.
“When an engineer friend of mine (who would be a superb teacher) looked into teaching technology but stopped short when he realised he’d have to take a 50% pay cut, there is something wrong. When we are losing half of all new graduates within their first five years of teaching, things aren’t good. When teaching isn’t attracting the cream of the crop, there is a problem.
“When these things happen it is not just the profession that suffers, it is the generations of rangatahi whose lives would have been hugely enriched just by knowing these teachers and having them on their team.
“We know that teachers change lives, but how many of those opportunities are going to be missed when government can’t or won’t value them? The flow-on effects of an undervalued education system reach into our culture and through the generations.
“School is the only ticket for some of these children to escape some pretty bleak situations and contribute to our communities in a positive way. This mess is already generational.
“Education is a passport to a better life. And a better future.
“So with a heavy heart, I will strike. Not for me, but for us, for our profession and what it should be. Most of all I will strike for our children. They are taonga.
“They are our hope for a brighter tomorrow, and they deserve better.”
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