The Ministry has responded to the latest strike action in a new statement from Iona Holsted, Secretary for Education. She said:
This strike action does not offer a solution. Instead it will cause disruption to the learning of many thousands of children and young people, as well as causing significant inconvenience for parents and families. Those with primary-aged children have already had to manage through two previous strikes.
We will be applying to the Employment Relations Authority for an urgent return to facilitated bargaining with NZEI Te Riu Roa to reach a settlement for primary principals and primary teachers. We will also seek to start this process for secondary teachers.
We have invited both NZEI Te Riu Roa and NZPPTA to join in these applications.
We are seeking facilitated bargaining, because it is the strongest form of assistance available to the parties involved to reach a negotiated settlement.
Throughout our ongoing pay discussions we have been willing to discuss options for the combined $1.2 billion settlement. We have also invited both unions to talk about how we can address their time and other concerns outside of the pay talks.
We encourage NZEI Te Riu Roa and NZPPTA’s wider campaigns to recognise the investment the Government has made to date in education, which includes 600 new learning support coordinator roles as part of $500 million for learning support. These coordinators will be trained teachers and will support teachers who are working with children and young people with additional learning needs.
The latest data shows that more people are training to be teachers, more teachers are entering the workforce and more teachers are staying in the profession. The teaching workforce is stable and growing, with over 1,000 more joining our current 70,000 primary and secondary teachers in 2018.
