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Download AudioSecondary school teachers are refusing to cover for absent colleagues as they move towards a national strike over a lack of progress towards a new collective agreement.
The Maori vice president of the Post Primary Teachers Association, Te Amohia Taua-Glassie, says the teachers are withholding the goodwill that allowed schools to function despite widespread staff shortages.
She says it’s time for the government to resolve the shortage.
“Yes, we are highlighting this by refusing to do the internal cover, (the government) to provide salary rates and conditions to keep experienced and skilled teachers in our classroom for our akonga, our tamariki, and to attract graduates into secondary teaching and encourage those experienced teachers who have retired or moved to other spaces to hoki mai, to come back to our classrooms,” she says.
The strike is on March 16.
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