A big crowd took to the streets last week for teacher strikes with the threat of more to come. Photo Matt MarkhamMore than 350 Year 9 students around the Ashburton District had an unexpected holiday yesterday as the first round of rolling strikes by secondary school teachers kicked off.

In support of their stalled negotiations over wages and conditions, secondary teachers across New Zealand have followed up last week’s strike action with a series of rostered home days for students that will see classes withdrawn one day each week for a set year group.

The rolling strikes started yesterday with Year 9 and will be followed with a Year 10 rostered home day next week.

Ashburton College principal Ross Preece is keeping his fingers crossed there will be some movement in the negotiations before the strike days start impacting on Year 11 to 13 students.

While he supports the teachers in their claims, Preece said he’s concerned at the loss of class time for senior students.

“We’re full of hope because that the ministry has said ‘we need to talk about this’ is helpful,” he said.

There was absolutely no doubt that something had to change, if not salaries then conditions around providing support in classrooms because there were growing numbers of higher needs students in schools, Preece said.

“Unfortunately what isn’t growing is teacher numbers.”

That there were only 11 trainee teachers currently with physics as a speciality demonstrated very clearly the depth of the problem, he said.

The college employs two physics teachers and is one of more than 350 secondary schools in New Zealand, most of whom employ specialist physics teachers.

The college, like most schools around New Zealand, was struggling to fill vacancies and was only able to ensure there was a teacher in front of each class through the good will of retired teachers making a temporary return to the classroom, Preece said.

“We have two or three now but that’s not sustainable long term.

“These are very capable teachers who are coming out of retirement to fill gaps and we’re very fortunate to find staff willing to do this.”

There was a large pool of teachers who had exited the profession, but for those who may want to re-enter after letting registration lapse there was little incentive, with six months retraining at a cost of around $6000 required, he said.

For teachers in the profession, the 10 per cent pay rise over three years on offer might address inflation, but it did nothing to address the 10-year lag where salaries had been almost stationary, Preece said.

“Even if they came up with a plan for the future, that would be something.

“Teachers don’t like being on strike because it’s impacting on their students, but there needs to be some sort of indication from the Government.”

The rostered home days are scheduled for June 11, Year 10, June 26, Year 11 and July 2, Year 12.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 5 June 2019