Mr Lange silent on teacher threat

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 1

Mr Lange silent on teacher threat

JENNY LONG

and NZPA

The Minister of Education, Mr Lange, yesterday remained silent about industrial action . threatened by secondary school teachers against a plan to radically alter their pay structure. A spokesman for Mr Lange said that he was not prepared to comment at this stage. The proposal that school principals be given power to set their teachers’ pay was still under negotiation. The Post-Primary Teachers’ Association pulled out of salary talks with the State Services Coordinating Committee on Friday because the committee first wanted agreement on big changes to teachers’ pay structure before it considered the P.P.T.A.’s claim. The committee’s proposals would give each school an annual salary budget to allocate to teachers. The pay of individual teachers would then be set by the school management (preferably delegated to the principal). The president of the P.P.T.A.,

Mr Peter Allen, said that the proposals represented a complete change in the way secondary schools were organised and were not acceptable to teachers. Teachers in Wellington later announced that they will hold a stop-work meeting on Friday to decide their response and others are expected to follow their lead. The committee believed that giving principals a greater managerial role would make schools more efficient The moves are consistent with drives to greater efficiency in all State services. However, Mr Allen said. that he did not believe it would promote efficiency, and would lead to increased competition among teachers, to the detriment of pupils. . Schools certainly had a problem at the moment in getting and retaining teachers, Mr Allen ’said. The proposal to give more power to principals was “dressed up” as a response that wpuld help a staffing problem, he said. Mr Lange would not comment on the benefits of the proposal,

but did say that he had in the past specifically “disavowed” any proposals to give autonomy to school principals. Mr Allen said that the Government would have to intervene if the dispute continued, “because the staffing problem is the Government’s problem.” Schools could consider strike action, said Mr Allen. Action could continue into next year. Results of individual school meetings should be known by the end of the wepk. ..« ’ ’ ' The State Services Commission said that the talks should not have broken down oh Friday. Alison Timms, of the State Services Commission’s industrial relations section, said that the proposals were part of a longterm plan and the committee was not seeking immediate approval of all aspects. There was no question of giving principals unrestricted power to hire arid fire staff. It was aimed at producing a more flexible pay structure and in devolving power more to local communities.