Kerre Woodham: Why does teaching need to be valued more highly when our kids are failing?

Now, if you've listened to the show for any amount of time, you will know that I have always banged on about education being a lifeline, especially to kids who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

If you come from a family where there are few choices, a good education, good qualifications, give you an opportunity to aspire to and attain more.

This is no longer true.

Where previous generations had the opportunity to get a world class education and education that could take them anywhere in the world, New Zealand children today are being badly let down.

A 2020 UNICEF report among many, found over a third of our 15-year-olds did not have basic proficiency in literacy and maths. It's one of a series of international and national reports which have shown New Zealand students are falling behind in the core subjects of reading, writing, maths and science.

We've known this. We've known this for some time, and nothing has been done.

Many educators themselves have no faith in the qualifications being offered, with schools turning away from NCEA. It's not fit for purpose. And yet today, again, the teachers are on strike.

They say they deserve more money; better pay to keep skilled and experienced teachers in the profession.

They have been offered a lump sum payment of $4500 and three pay rises by December 24, ranging from 11 percent to 15.5 percent. It's not enough, and it doesn't address many of the other issues that teachers say are so vital.

The PPTA Acting President said teachers would much rather be in the classroom, but the teacher shortage needs to be urgently addressed. He said we need pay and conditions that will keep our skilled and experienced teachers in the profession, attract people into teaching, and encourage those teachers who have left to return to the job they love.  Secondary teaching, he says, is an awesome career.

It's a hugely demanding one. It needs to be valued more highly and the work needs to be more manageable.  

Why does it need to be valued more highly when our kids are failing?

When our kids are not getting the sort of education that other children are getting in other parts of the world from other teachers. How can you value a profession that is not delivering? Is it the fault of the curriculum? The fact that many parents don't value education and education does start in the home first and foremost. Or is it that our teachers aren't quite as fabulous as they think they are?

Whatever it is, our children are the ones that are paying the price. The message that has been sent to our young people over the past few years is that they don't matter.

Schools were locked up, kids turned away, to protect the vulnerable. They were told that learning from home over Zoom was just as good as being in the classroom. Well, if that's the case, why do teachers need more money?

Schools have been shut for weather events. For gang events and now for teachers to use as a bargaining chip in their pay negotiations.

An e-mail to Early Edition this morning from a concerned mum said that her daughter was in the top two percent of achievers but is now needing psychological counselling because she is so stressed about the teacher only days, about the strikes, about the fact that she's not going to be able to give the best she can give because she's being turned away from her classroom.

We have lost so many school days.

Of course we have a truancy problem when we have shown kids over the past three years that they're turning up to school doesn't matter.

It can be sacrificed for just about everything. We've told our kids that learning isn't a priority. A world class education used to be the birth right of a New Zealand child and that is simply not true anymore.

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