NZEI

The Labour party is trying to amend the Charter Schools legislation to force them to only hire registered teachers.

A last-ditch bid to modify the rules for charter schools will take place this week, with pressure expected to go on the Maori Party whose votes will decide whether legislation passes.

Labour has effectively conceded defeat in its battle against allowing a trial of the schools, which will be able to determine their own curriculum and can be staffed by teachers who are not registered.

But Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins said he would be tabling a series of Supplementary Order Papers this week, suggesting amendments to the Education Amendment Bill when it sees its second reading.

These would impose teacher registration and curriculum requirements, as well as making the schools subject to the Official Information Act.

No problems with the OIA, but it should apply to any organisation in receipt of public funds including universities. The insistence on registered teachers though is farcical. Labur and the their paymasters the teacher unions claim it is to protect children.  Read more »

Once again the Herald on Sunday has fallen for the Labour flunkies in education crying a river of tears to help them sell papers.

They have a story about over-crowed schools, they quote Malcolm Milner:

Auckland is growing up, in more ways than one – just ask Malcolm Milner. He is principal of an inner-city primary school about to embark on a project that will horrify many. Milner’s Balmoral School is set to grow from a fairly typical state school into a three- or even four-storey affair.

…

When Milner took the job at Balmoral School six years ago, the school roll was about 730. By the end of this year it is expected to top 855 and is forecast to reach almost 1000 by 2015.

“Huge primary schools are not something we have had in New Zealand before and people have to ask themselves if this is what we really want for our children,” Milner says. “This is something brought in by the Government by stealth and the public needs to be aware of what is going on.”

Milner says his school can’t keep eating into its playing fields for new classrooms.

“We are going to build to three storeys but can go up to four if needed,” he says. “I keep asking myself, how big does the Ministry of Education expect my school to get?

“As a country surely we cannot afford to see education as a monetary rather than a social priority. That would be disastrous. We need to start buying more land to build more schools rather than create high-rise institutions for our children.”  Read more »

Hmmm, the NZEI have gone from bullying and whining about levels of support in their emails to now claiming in a press release for the compliant media to repeat that they had “overwhelming support” for their protests today.

More than ten thousand primary and early childhood teachers, school support staff, parents and other supporters took part in marches and rallies throughout the country today in protest at the Government’s education agenda.

In Auckland , Queen Street was closed to traffic as around four thousand people marched to Aotea Square, in Wellington around 2000 gathered outside Parliament grounds while in Christchurch several hundred people converged on MP Gerry Brownlee’s electorate office.

The national Day of Action wasn’t limited to the main centres. Around the rest of the country, from Whangarei through to Invercargill, many hundreds took to the streets to show their support for retaining New Zealand’s public education system.  Read more »

As teachers show apathy toward the NZEI organised protests the union is getting desperate, they are now seeking “rent a crowd” to assist with numbers in many provincial centres. My tip line has gone wild with people sending me emails like this one.

>>> Karen Jackson 11/04/2013 10:46 a.m. >>>

FYI…has just been sent through..

How are you all going with your march/rally organisation? Do you need anything else?..I’m just about to ring ‘hire a crowd’ !

***********************************************
Karen Jackson
Lead Organiser
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Box 8041
New Plymouth

Read more »

More on the protesting by NZEI teachers.

This is hilarious…the teachers turning up for the protest tomorrow (with their kids) and don’t even know what the protest is about…and have to be schooled themselves.

Oh and don’t miss how they are being implored to bring the kids so they can stretch their “demonstration legs”.

I think a more appropriate protest would be for parents to start singing this song:

There is angst amongst the member of NZEI. Thankfully it is all over Facebook for us all to read.

Some members are calling for a witch-hunt against members who don’t attend NZEI protests.

So how’s that protest activity going?  Not so impressed with the strong arm tactics to get people to show up.  Naming and shaming now by the NZEI if members don’t comply?

Read more »

A reader emails about Charter Schools. I found this email very interesting, something for other readers to discuss.

You have run a number of blogs over time about the unions and charter schools.

The unions obviously want to block charter schools. Perhaps it is because these big huge organisations with thousands of teachers are afraid they may be brought down by a small army inside a Trojan horse called “Charter/Partnership Schools”.

Perhaps it’s because education in NZ still revolves around the adults, not the students as we profess it does. Notice how, while unions, principals groups, Massey University, etc. pontificate about charter schools they all ignore the hard statistics relating to NZ kids becoming disengaged, dropping out of school, failing to achieve NCEA or any other school qualification, failing to enter university or the work force….least of all to mention the teen suicide rate …  Read more »

via the tipline

The NZEI is mounting a public campaign for their pay round. Despite media stories to the contrary they are already planning strike action for Term Two.

I have highlighted some of the more concerning aspects to their plans, including the euphemistically described “school based activities”.

Basically though they are opposed to every aspet of government policy, including national standards, charter schools and decisions in Christchurch. They believe it all to be part of a conspiracy they have called “Global Education Reform Movement” or GERM, which they oppose.

To make it clear it appears they are opposed to ANY reforms of education. At least they have put it all inn writing though which was nice of them.  Read more »

NZEI area field officer Louise Simmons at a November ’12 meeting – Hawkes Bay Today

Primary teachers had a paid stop work meeting yesterday.  This seems to be the result

Waikato primary teachers have voted to support strike action if the Government refuses to budge on negotiations over their collective agreement.

Read more »

Hekia Parata is away on holiday working like a navvy in Europe at an Education Conference that conveniently happens to be in Amsterdam, followed by a little side trip to Paris, taking along union bosses for a little sharing of the trough in a bid to try to tame them.

Here is her week in review, she started in London:

London today with Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. twitter.com/hekiaparata/st…

— Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 11, 2013

Then she attended a Commonwealth Day function:

Attended the Commonwealth Day reception at Marlborough House in London. Great to catch up with Sir Anand Satyanand. twitter.com/hekiaparata/st… — Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 12, 2013

Then she and “her team” whizzed off to Amsterdam:

Just arrived in Amsterdam with the NZ Union & Teacher Leader delegation to attend the 2013 International Summit on the Teaching Profession. — Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 12, 2013

Read more »