On Wednesday, striking teachers will refuse to participate in sport and other extra-curricular activies they normally would at schools. Photo: 123rf
High school teachers are ramping up their strike action after refusing the latest collective agreement from the Ministry of Education.
On Wednesday, unionised teachers plan to refuse to take part in extra curricular activities, like sport - adding to the list of industrial actions.
The bargaining facilitator recommended the Post-Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) suspend strike action while it considered arbitration, but the union was pushing on for now.
A Year 10 Auckland student, who did not wish to be named, was at home because of the teachers' rolling strike action today, said: "It's quite nice having the extra holiday, but it does push back a lot of our assignments".
"Essays and assignments are becoming really hard to keep up with and everything on a deadline has been cut short."
She estimated she had about six days off school since the striking began.
A group of Waikato student leaders wrote an open letter to the education minister last week, saying they were concerned they might not make NCEA deadlines.
The Wednesday action came on top of rolling strikes, refusing to relieve during planning time and refusing to work outside school hours.
The Year 10 student said she was feeling the effects.
"I'm in a lot of clubs like Unicef, United Nations, those kind of things and I'd be quite sad to see us not be able to get those opportunities," she said.
"Same for sports... I know there's a lot of people who will be quite sad if they're not able to do competitions and games."
School Sports New Zealand chief executive Mike Summerell said most standard games could be rescheduled between schools.
But it varied across the motu.
"It's a bit harder in places like Christchurch, where a whole school sports system happens on a Wednesday and that incorporates a lot of teacher support to allow that to happen," he said.
They had negotiated an exemption for striking teachers for the summer tournament week and were considering doing the same for August's winter tournament week, Summerell said.
"That comprises of around 40,000 students representing their schools in all manner of sports.
"Those dates are confirmed and communicated years in advance. It would be my hope and my expectation that whatever action may be happening at that time that it doesn't impact on young people's ability to participate."
He said teachers were the glue that held the system together, and believed they needed more time and resources to keep running sports on top of their existing workloads.
"We support any action that's going to improve that. I just hope that the consideration for the young people at the centre of this who sport means so much for is as valued - and I'm sure it is," Summerell said.
For some parents, their support for the strikes was waning.
This parent was concerned their children's education was suffering: "Please stop and listen - many of us are not saying you don't deserve better pay," they said.
"We are just simply saying our children deserve a voice as well and that our concern for them is as valid as the things you are fighting for."
The parent wanted to see a different form of action taken, one that did not cause so many interruptions for pupils.
Ministry of Education Curriculum Centre Hautū (leader) Ellen MacGregor-Reid said "any disruption to learning was unfair on students".
"However, the flexibility of the NCEA qualification provides good opportunities to manage the amount of disruption currently occurring through industrial action, without disadvantaging NCEA students.
"At this stage of the year most standards being assessed are internal, which schools have the flexibility to schedule around strike action."
The ministry would keep working with the Qualifications Authority to monitor the impacts in case there was a need for further measures, MacGregor-Reid said.
Asked on Checkpoint if the industrial action was at risk of going into the third term, Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said work was underway to try to prevent that.
"That's what we're working really hard on. That's my number one focus at the moment, to stop that happening. Having conversations around that and meetings all the time."
Tinetti said in the interest of fair bargaining she could not comment on the process underway between the PPTA and Ministry of Education.
"But I'm really working hard to make sure we can minimise that disruption. I am as distressed as anyone else in this situation, that the young people need to be in school, and need to be learning."
