Dunedin schools face action

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 6

Dunedin schools face action

PA Dunedin Dunedin has been singled out by the PostPrimary Teachers’ Association — it plans to shut ail the city’s State and integrated secondary schools next term if its national award is not settled. The plan has angered Dunedin secondary school principals and caused the rector of King’s High School, Mr lan Simpson, to resign from the association. The shutdown, which could develop into an indefinite strike by more than 400 members of the P.P.T.A. at 11 schools, would affect more than 8500 pupils. The strategy has been adopted and targeted on Dunedin as a last-ditch stand by the P.P.T.A. in its award dispute with the State Services Commission should the series of rolling strikes fail to bring a change in

the commission’s stance. Mr Simpson said yesterday he was totally opposed to this type of strategy. “Any form of industrial action which disadvantages one group of children against their peers, over the remainder of the country, is to my mind immoral,” he said. “The implications for those children sitting external exams are obvious.” Mr Simpson said he believed the damage that would be done to individual schools and their relationship with their own community would take years to repair. “When this idea for targeted strike action was dropped on me, I resigned from the P.P.T.A.,” he said. Mr Simpson said he understood his colleagues’ concern to protect education standards but it should not mean taking strike

action to win their case. Mr Simpson said the strike could go on indefinitely, which might mean many fifth and seventh form students missing out on weeks of work. “Their external exams at the end of the year must suffer because of it. That to me is totally wrong.” The rector of Otago Boys’ High School, Mr Michael McMillan, said he did not believe strike action was the way to solve the award Issues. “It worries me greatly that the students should be upset in this manner," he said. “Personally, I am not in favour of any form of strike action and it would be a jolly shame if it were to be Dunedin which is singled out for a targeted strike.”