Local schools under threat, says NZEI

Ruapehu Bulletin, 26 March 1991, Page 4

Local schools under threat, says NZEI

This letter is from the local branch of the New Zealand Education Institute. • Our education system is under threat. Local teachers have joined together to fight for education and to fight for fair treatment for those who work in it. The threat comes from two directions at once. There are nineteen different 'reviews' of education going on right now, reviews which go to the heart of education. Those reviews were announced in December and are racing ahead now. Those who work in schools haven't even seen the terms of reference, let alone had any involvement in them. At the same time, the

Government has introduced the Employment Contracts Bill. This Bill will strip away the protection of unions from working people. It aims to put all on individual 'contracts' so employees have to face employers alone, one by one. It does this by abolishing national awards or agreements and introducing a system of 'voluntary' individual or collective contracts. Yet again, just like with post offices, local health facilities and other government agencies, schools in rural areas especially will be the losers and that creates a losing cycle. Those young people will have even less chance of breaking out of it.

If we want all our kids to have a good education system, if we want fair wages and conditions at work, we have to speak up, and we have to do it now. The unions of everyone who works in education have joined together to fight for education and to fight for fair treatment of those who work in it. All local schools and kindergartens will be closed on Thursday 4 April to protest the Employment Contracts Bill. Regional meetings of education unions will be held in main centres on the day. WE MUST ACT NOW.