U.K. rise for N.Z. teachers

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 25

U.K. rise for N.Z. teachers

By

TONY VERDON

in London British education authorities have made big concessions to Australasian teachers, after a sixmonth battle to gain similar salary and conditions as their British colleagues. New Zealand and Australian teachers are prepared to work among the most deprived of British school children, including those in the East End of London.

Until last week, the education authorities in Britain had been reluctant to recognise Australasian teacher qualifications as

being the equivalent of British teacher training. Faced with the prospect of thousands of children having to be sent home at the beginning of the next academic year in August, and the threat of being sued by parents for failing to provide sufficient teachers, the Inner London Education Authority has suddenly granted big concessions to New Zealand and Australian

teachers working in London. At the centre of the

dispute has been the pay that British education authorities have been prepared to offer to fully qualified teachers from New Zealand and Australia.

They have been working for just over SNZIOO a day soon after arriving in Britain, while being denied “main pay scale” rates until being given qualified teacher status by the Department of Education and Science.

Such recognition would give them pay rates of between $127 and $l9O a day.

A group formed to push the case of Australasian teahers, K.A.T.S. (Kiwi, Australasian Teachers’ Support) has been arguing with the Inner London Education Authority for months that it should pay main-scale rates to teachers while they waited for the department to recognise their qualifications.

The British Minister of Education, Mr Kenneth Baker, is understood to have discussed the issue during his recent visit to New Zealand and Aus-

trana. Until this week, he has said the issue was one for local education authorities, such as 1.L.E.A., and that a new system of recognising teacher qualifications would smooth the way for Australasian teachers. Australasian teacher representatives were surprised when senior I.L.E.A. representatives agreed to pay them at a rate equivalent to the main-scale rate paid to British teachers.

I.L.E.A. representatives also agreed during a meeting last week to give back-pay owed, from late last year. The recognition by the British authorities of New Zealand and Australian teachers’ experience is a breakthrough.

A former Rotorua teacher and K.A.T.S. spokesman, Mr John Dwyer, said: "Our demands haven’t been unreasonable. They have been fair and reasonable.”

Under a new system of teacher registration being introduced in Britain later

this year, the authorities had agreed that Australasian teachers would automatically become licensed teachers. Instead of having to wait for more than two years to be recognised as qualified teachers, Australasians would only have to teach for a minimum of three terms in the United Kingdom, regardless of their qualifications and experience. Mr Baker is introducing

the new system of licensed teachers to plug the chronic teacher shortage in Britain, and to attract unqualified

teachers into classrooms. Under a new proposal the Department of Education and Science agreed that there should be a separate “overseas qualified teacher status” category, which would enable Australasian teachers to short-circuit the recognition system applied to all other teachers. After meeting I.L.E.A. officials, Mr Baker had said he wanted the auth-

ority to use the new licensed teacher system “as flexibly as possible” to

offer higher salaries to potential recruits from countries such as New Zealand and Australia.

In the deprived east London borough of Tower Hamlets, Australasian teachers account for 150 of the 170 “supply," or extra, teachers employed in classrooms.

Mr Dwyer said the hard-fought concessions were a direct result of the chronic teacher shortage, particularly in London. “At one stage it appeared we wouldn’t win any concessions,” he said.

“I think we have achieved a lot as a small group and we don’t have a lot of political power.” It is believed the personal intervention of Mr Baker in the situation has helped the Australasian teachers reach agreement with employing education authorities. Mr Baker acknowledged before visiting Australia and New Zealand earlier this year, that New Zealand and Australian teachers held qualifications which should be more easily recognised in Britain.