July 09, 2019
Pay pressures put off potential principals
The president of the Principals' Federation says current efforts to train teachers for Māori immersion and Māori in mainstream classes is falling well short of what is needed.
Whetu Cormick says principals fear their pay scales and relativities could go out of kilter in the current round.
The current offer would leave principals in smaller schools and kura, who have to carry the responsibility for the school, being paid less than senior teachers at larger schools.
Poor pay and conditions means it's already hard to fill positions in many schools, including Māori ones, and there could be problems with future suppy.
"We're only producing 45 competent fluent te reo Māori teachers every year to teach in our kura kaupapa and level one Māori classes. To move that issue to tumuaki Māori, we are seeing a decline in applicants across the country, so if you think of kura kaupapa Māori, we really need to be thinking about our workforce for the future," Mr Cormick says.
While they can't go on strike, principals are considering withdrawing from engagement with the ministry, which could hold up a lot of work now going on to reform the sector
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