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Education Minister Jan Tinetti says she’s proud to see teachers standing up – even if it means going on strike.
The former school principal says as minister she can’t comment on the teachers’ claims or the state of the negotiations before last Thursday’s national strike.
But as an education activist for many years she appreciates the need to keep building on past achievements.
“I was actually really proud of the teaching profession on Thursday. It didn’t look great for the profession in that respect because there’s a lot of angst and a lot of tiredness at the moment – it’s been a terrible few years for all of us but our teaching profession has done an absolutely stellar job – proud of the fact they can stand up and say this is what we stand for, this is what we need, and I’m really confident we are going to get there,” Ms Tinetti says.
As the former principal of the primarily-Māori Merrivale School in Tauranga she’d like to see more recognition for the special attributes and skills that Māori teachers bring to the classroom.
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