PPTA Te Wehengarua president Chris Abercrombie has called on the Minister of Education to provide the support that schools will need if they are to remain open during the worsening fuel crisis.
“The Government says it doesn’t want schools moving to online learning, even if the fuel situation gets much worse.
Read the latest print edition of School News online HERE.
“We want to avoid that kind of disruption for students and teachers too, but there is a need to be realistic about the pressures we are facing and what the Government would need to do for face-to-face learning to remain viable,” Mr Abercrombie said.
Related School News article: PPTA sounds alarm over shortage of secondary school teachers
A survey of PPTA members, sent out at the end of the last term, found that 94 percent of secondary teachers travelled to and from school by car or other form of private motor vehicle.
Eighty nine percent used this mode exclusively and 5 percent used it in combination with other modes such as public transport or walking and cycling.
Almost 80 percent of teachers using private vehicles considered that public transport was not a potential option.
The average distance travelled by teachers in the survey was 17.4 kms each way.
That equates to 34.8 kms a day or 174 kms a week. But in the most extreme cases, some teachers were travelling 1,000 kms a week.
“Unsurprisingly, the survey results show that the further a teacher travels, the greater financial pressure they are experiencing – and the more vulnerable they are to future fuel cost increases,” said Chris Abercrombie.
Teachers in smaller and more remote settlements, in schools facing greater challenges as measured by the Equity Index (EQI), and kaupapa Māori education settings, tended to travel greater distances and face greater financial pressures.
Also, the latest census data (2023) showed that children and young people aged 10-14 were much more likely to travel in a private motor vehicle than by public transport or walking or cycling. School bus use is more prevalent in smaller settlements, but private vehicles remain the dominant mode.
Only seven percent of students live in areas where it would be even slightly realistic for bus services to scale up enough to substantially reduce reliance on cars.
“As we begin the new school term, with no end in sight for this fuel crisis that is worsening by the day, we call on the Government to give all schools a clear plan.
“If we want to continue face-to-face learning, then support must be given to teachers and students to enable them to get to and from school without increasing financial pressure.
“If there is no means of support, then the Minister of Education needs to develop a plan for some use of online learning – otherwise chaos and confusion will reign.”
