Primary teachers and principals to consider new offers from the Ministry of Education
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take new offers from the Ministry of Education to primary principals and teachers at paid union meetings in the week of 18 March, following the conclusion of mediated negotiations yesterday.
Primary teacher Tute Porter-Samuels, a member of the primary teachers’ negotiation team, said while she’s pleased to finally be able to bring a new offer back to members, she’s disappointed with how little the Ministry was willing to move.
“The negotiation teams made it clear to the Ministry that the new offers are disappointing. They do not adequately address the urgent need for more time and more pay so that we can attract and retain great teachers ,” she said.
NZEI Te Riu Roa members will discuss and vote on whether to accept or reject the offers at nationwide meetings during the week of March 18. If they vote to reject the offers, they will vote on whether to join with their secondary school colleagues in strike action on 3 April.
“Principal and teacher members will consider these offers very carefully. We’ll be asking, are they good enough? Will they address the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention? If we vote to reject them, do we want to join with the PPTA and strike on 3 April?” says Ms Porter-Samuels.
The new offers
For primary teachers
The offers are the same as what the Ministry offered in November 2018, except:
Either:
An extra half day of classroom release time (CRT) per term for the duration of the agreement only (in addition to their current 10 hours CRT per term).
This compares to NZEI Te Riu Roa’s claim for CRT to be replaced with professional practice time (PPT) of 20 hours per full time equivalent teacher per term.
OR
A new maximum step for Q3+, Q4 and Q5 teachers brought in on 27 February 2020 (12 months earlier than the previous offer).
For primary principals
The offers are the same as what the Ministry offered in November 2018, except:
For U1 and U2 principals, the Ministry has offered 10 hours of classroom release time per term from 2019.
You can compare and contrast the new offers with the Ministry’s previous offers and NZEI Te Riu Roa’s claims here.
