Teachers, Govt set to collide

Press, 25 August 1988, Page 5

Teachers, Govt set to collide

PA Wellington Secondary school teachers yesterday launched a campaign of opposition to education restructuring, putting them on a collision course with the Government.

. The Minister of Education, Mr Lange, on Tuesday gave the Post-Prim-ary Teachers’ Association conference a firm indication that the reform outlined in “Tomorrow’s Schools,” a Government policy paper, would be implemented by legislation if necessary.

When the conference resumed yesterday teachers remained critical of many aspects of the reform measures and were outlining campaign strategies. The campaign could link with other teacher unions across New Zealand after a resolution on Tuesday that the association investigate federation with all other teacher unions. The primary school teachers’ organisation, which also opposes much of the reform package, has advocated federation.

Teachers were not planning tumult in schools but would oppose those aspects of the reform which disrupted the quality and opportunity of education, the president, Ms Ruth

Chapman, said. A campaign focusing on public information and political lobbying was fiercely debated at the conference with some delegates urging swifter industrial action. One Auckland teacher said the school in which he taught in a poor area, would be destroyed in the new structure. All teachers had to be made aware how urgent the issue was. However, other

speakers said the association had to be sure it was not just closing ranks against reform which would be welcomed by many parents.

The association should come up with an alternative restructuring plan, rather than' simply react against what was proposed, another delegate said. There were many aspects of the present administration which the association should not be defending. The immediate past president, Mr Peter Allen, said teachers faced a battle of the order they had never experienced before, in terms of the intensity, the degree of the opposition they faced and the need to mobilise members and the public. He said the legislation to put the new education structure into place had already been written. Teachers also faced the possibility the Government would pre-empt the next award round by legislating on the industrial matter contained in the reform.