By RNZ

Teachers and principals are warning they cannot cope with the pace and scale of changes to the school system.

Groups including secondary school English teachers and Northland principals have told RNZ they have written to the Education Ministry and to Education Minister Jan Tinetti calling for a slow-down.

They said the workload created by the changes was so great principals would quit or refuse to implement some of the changes.

They said the list included an overhaul of the curriculum, new rules for physically restraining children, changes to planning and reporting, a review of teacher aide funding, a review of assistance for children with high needs, a national push to improve attendance, new NCEA standards and new NCEA literacy and numeracy tests.

Principals Federation president Leanne Otene said principals had “a myriad” of consultation documents on their desks that they were expected to read and respond to within the next month.

People did not necessarily disagree with the changes, but there were too many and principals were not coping, Otene said.

“We’re getting calls on a daily basis from principals who are feeling overwhelmed with the amount of consultation documents, with the curriculum refresh and the work in and around that. It’s just become a bit too much, in fact a lot, for principals to deal with.”

The ministry had promised to make the workload more manageable, Otene said, but that would not be enough and the pressure was likely to drive people out of the job.

“If you continue to keep pushing out documents throughout the year we’re going to see an exit in the profession.

“The second thing that’s going to happen which is really concerning is that teachers are going to take their eye off the ball, which means teaching and learning, because they’re going to need to get their heads into these documents to understand them.”

Urgent need for information - English teachers

This week the Association of Teachers of English wrote to Tinetti warning that its members did not have enough information about NCEA changes that start next year.

Association vice-president Pip Tinning said teachers were expected to work with new NCEA level 1 English standards from 2024, but they still had not seen those standards.

“We need the information urgently, we need a timeline that’s really definitive urgently, or do we look at a postponement or a transition year.”

Tinning said teachers of English were also trying to understand other changes to the school system and many were finding the amount of work overwhelming.

Balancing priorities

Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association president Pat Newman said by his count schools were getting to grips with 25 major changes.

“That’s absolutely cuckoo.”

Newman said the Government should reprioritise so schools could focus on just three or four major projects.

If it did not do that, there would be three likely reactions, he said.

“You’ll find a heck of a lot more principals going and saying that we’ve had enough. It’s already happening. Secondly, you’ll have schools that will try and bring the whole damn lot in and destroy their staff and destroy themselves, and thirdly people just saying ‘no, we’re not doing it’.”

Secondary Principals Association president Vaughan Couillault said schools could not do all that was being asked of them on top of staff shortages, recent flooding, and the effects of the pandemic.

“We’ll prioritise one over the other. It’s just not tenable to do all of the things that are being asked of us at the moment. So I don’t think just blindly carrying on at the same pace and scale is something that the sector can actually do.”

Couillault said the association’s members were telling him that their staff did not have the capacity or capability in terms of energy and resilience to keep up with the pace of change.

Nobody was suggesting a complete halt to the work, he said.

“What we need to implement change with fidelity is high quality staff in every position that we’ve got and at the moment there are many of us that have done Band-aid fixes, collapsing this class or putting a non-specialist over there to make sure our students are safe because we’ve got a significant workforce issue.

“When we’ve got a workforce issue we put strain on the existing workforce which have been working at capacity just to deliver what’s normal. You try and throw other change management over the top of that and something’s got to give.”

Tinetti said the past three years had put an enormous amount of pressure on teachers and students.

“I am mindful that there needs to be balance between the changes needed to ensure our kids are getting the world class education they deserve, and putting too much on teachers’ and school leaders’ plates. I am committed to supporting changes, if and when, needed.”

Secondary school students are due to miss another day of lessons today as thousands of secondary teachers take a second day of strike action.

The union, the Post Primary Teachers Association, says it wants better pay and better work conditions.

The teachers will be joined by some staff from area schools which are rural schools that cover all year groups.

The strike does not include primary school teachers, who joined nationwide strikes two weeks ago.

- John Gerritsen, RNZ