Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
Chris Hipkins
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Collaborating
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Dave Kennedy
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Green Party
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Hekia Parata
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Investing in Educational Success
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Labour Party
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New Zealand Principals Federation
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NZEI
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PPTA
There seems to be a split in the ranks of teacher unions. The Herald reports on an apparent "epic fail" of Hekia Parata's Investing in Educational Success policy:
The Government's $359 million expert teachers policy has proved to be the latest in a series of "epic failures" in the education sector due to a lack of consultation with teachers and Labour will soon announce a better model it says.
The Government policy which would see "expert" and "lead" teachers identified and paid extra to act as role models across several schools was slammed by primary teachers union the NZEI and the NZ Principals Federation after they met to discuss it this week.
NZEI National President Judith Nowotarski said leaders from national and regional principal and teacher groups had sent a clear message that the policy, as it currently stood, was "unacceptable and unworkable" and "identified the lack of direct benefit for children in this policy".
School leaders were concerned the policy would remove highly rated teachers and principals from their schools for two days a week, which would impact on children's learning.
Labour's education spokesman Chris Hipkins said the fact that teachers and principals were willing to turn down pay rises of up to $40,000 a year "reflects how bad they believe this policy is".
And Green Party candidate, former teacher and NZEI delegate Dave Kennedy offers a similar narrative at his blog:
Classroom teachers, the New Zealand Educational Institute, the New Zealand Principal's Federation and education academics have all strongly rejected the Government's proposed $359 million Investment into Education Success (IES). All believe that this substantial amount of money will not produce the results that the Education Minister claims and would be better spent elsewhere.
Now the fact that NZEI, the Labour Party's Education spokesman and a Green Party candidate with strong NZEI links are singing from the same songbook is nothing new. But what is interesting is that none of them mention the secondary teachers' union, the PPTA.
We blogged last week about our surprise at the PPTA's willingness to throw off its tradition reluctance to deal with a National Party Education Minister. PPTA has engaged with Hekia Parata, and even though it is early days in what has already been a tense relationship, there are some very promising signs.
And the PPTA has published an interesting blog-post on its website that busts o few of the myths surrounding IES. We have left the link on Dave Kennedy's blog, given that he is always so keen to provide us with links to further our education on causes dear to his heart, if not to ours. The post is headed Six Impossible things being said about IES, and begins thus:
Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said:
"one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen.
"When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day.
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
1. There has been no consultation.
This might be true if these changes had been legislated in place but that’s not what happened. The $359 million was an employer offer made to unions for them to bargain and amend with the aim of eventually putting it into their collective agreements. If using the democratic structures of unions to make changes for teachers isn’t consultation what is?
2. The money could be better spent on…
It possibly could but it was approved via the Budget process to be spent on a specific educational initiative. Budget spending decisions are a government prerogative. Anyone waiting for the day when a democratically-elected government sets its budget priorities by national plebiscite will be waiting a long time. If it is more important to spend money on addressing issues of poverty than teachers does that mean teachers will never seek another pay increase?
3. IES creates a layer of management…
We won't steal any more of the PPTA's thunder (but urge you to read the piece), and in fact can't quite believe that we are endorsing a union's point of view. But we reckon that the PPTA is on the right side of this argument, despite Dave Kennedy's rather patronising comment that "I also believe they do not understand the full ramifications.". With due respect to Dave, patronising a brethren union is not the way to win friends and influence voters!
It would seem that Chris Hipkins has simply rushed out a presser after reading the NZEI's diatribe about Mrs Parata and the IES policy. Perhaps he has former NZEI people advising him. In any event, the opposition of NZEI and the Principals Federation seems to be more about election-year ideology than advancing opportunities for their members.
Once again, we commend PPTA for putting aside past differences with Mrs Parata in an effort to improve the lot of principals and teachers, because that will ultimately improve outcomes for the children they teach. We'll leave the last word to the PPTA:
Listen carefully – that is the sound of professionals collaborating.
