On Thursday, March 16, thousands of teachers and supporters across the motu left their classrooms to strike. Following a few difficult years recovering from consistent delays in education due to the pandemic, teachers are demanding extra support for their students and themselves.
Critic Te Ārohi reached out to Otago Tertiary Education Union (TEU) organiser Daniel Benson-Guiu for his perspective. Daniel said that TEU members and staff were at the protest last Thursday to “stand alongside NZEI and PPTA members striking for better terms and conditions.” He also commented that it was “heartening to see school students there too supporting their kaiako".
Key worries that strikers shared concerned the mismatch between inflation and salary increases. As we all know, the cost of living is rapidly increasing. The starting salary for most teachers is about $51k, averaging out to $24 per hour - literally $1.30 over living wage (once it changes on April 1). That means that the labour of the people responsible for educating the next generation is valued the same as writers at Critic, who are basically just glorified shitposters.
Teachers said their working conditions are also far from adequate. A normal working week for a teacher should theoretically be 37.5 hours, however many teachers end up working much longer - sometimes up to even 50 hours. Yikes. It has also been brought to our attention that around 40% of NZ principals are relatively new to the job and are “being thrown into the deep end” with having to work within a system that is “barely hanging on”.
Teachers' demands addressed student wellbeing as well, who are equally as affected by the significant lack of funding. The allegedly “far from adequate” mental health facilities, for instance, could be addressed with better funding to allow for more guidance counsellors and easily accessible mental health resources.
Many of Otago’s recent teaching graduates who are working in schools around the motu, have had to prepare for a subpar working environment. Aotearoa’s beginning teachers are having to face the reality of how their “pay doesn’t reflect their passion and pride” while being put in charge of a child’s education. An Otago teaching student told us that they are “very happy that our teachers in Aotearoa are fighting for their worth…the passion our teachers have for their jobs is more than inspiring.”