P.P.T.A. president angry after Govt’s comments

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 3

P.P.T.A. president angry after Govt’s comments

PA Wellington The president of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association, Mr Tony Steele, yesterday accused the Government of neglecting its duty by not settling the secondary schoolteachers’ pay claim. Mr Steele was part of a P.P.T.A. delegation that met three Cabinet Ministers on Wednesday after a Cabinet sub-committee meeting reacted unfavour-

ably to an agreement the P.P.T.A. had reached with the Education Services Committee. “The Government has a responsiblity to run an efficient secondary service,” Mr Steele said. "They know very well that there are shortages in schools, they know it is going to get worse and they know the only offer they made does not even come close to meeting the requirements of the claim.” Mr Steele said the Government’s offer was less than one-third of the level reached by the P.P.T.A. and the E.S.C., an offer Mr Steele said earlier this week the Government should find “most attractive.”

“They know they have created a situation where a teacher might be teaching a 19-year-old about to go into the police where he will earn $32,000 in his first year. That is a level teachers cannot reach until they are a senior administrator.

“We are not going to be able to recruit people into the service and keep them there. They know that, yet they do not have the guts to make the decision to fix it,” Mr Steele said.

The only explanation the P.P.T.A. was given was that the claim will cost too much, but Mr Steele says that approach will cost the Government a lot more money in the long run.