June 27, 2019
No incentive for principals in pay deal
Settlement of education sector pay claims seems to have struck a hurdle with principals upset some of them will be paid less than teachers.
Whetu Cormick from the Principals Federation says while primary school teachers are to get parity with their secondary colleagues plus a wage jolt, there was nothing new in the last offer for primary school principals.
That means principals in small rural schools will get less than senior teachers in large city schools.
He says it will set back efforts to recruit staff for rural schools, and it will also impact on kura Māori.
"How do we grow the Māori workforce if we are not going to pay our tumuaki Māori enough to run kura kaupapa Māori, kura a iwi, and also mainstream schools. We want to be able to attract a strong and dedicated Māori workforce, so this is not just about us doing the job right now, this is actually about setting up for our future," Mr Cormick says.
Resolution of the primary principals claims will probably depend on how secondary principals fare in negotiations going on now.
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