Union wins brighten busy return for Term 3

Kia ora! Welcome to the Term Three issue of School News!

This term has launched with a bang! In the few weeks prior alone, shocking concerns have been raised around the new NCEA standards (page 21) and new pay rates have been settled for admin support staff (page 34). Reflecting on the settlement, NZEI Te Riu Roa President Liam Rutherford told us: “Overall, the feedback has been very positive because our admin and support staff members have waited a very long time for their work to be recognised after we raised this claim in 2018.

“We’re very much in the implementation stage, with documentation due to be released next week. We’ve also invited principals to attend webinars early next month with the Ministry and New Zealand School Trustees Association to discuss how the agreement will be applied.” Also settled in July, was a history-making seventy-nine percent average pay increase for kaiārahi i te reo. This marks the first proposed pay equity settlement for a Māori workforce in New Zealand history. Kaiārahi i te reo employed in Aotearoa schools and kura will receive the life-changing pay equity settlement, which NZEI Te Riu Roa added goes a long way to acknowledge the mana that kaiārahi bring to te reo rangatira and our education system: “Kaiārahi I te reo use their in-depth knowledge of te reo and tikanga Maori to support their school communities. “Should the offer be endorsed by those covered in the claim, a kaiārahi i te reo currently earning $23.03 per hour would be paid $41.31 per hour. Proposed pay increases range from 77 to 83 percent. The settlement includes commitment to improving professional learning and development, a new parental allowance, an overtime allowance, better rules for progression and an updated work matrix to determine grading. A comprehensive 18-month investigation conducted by NZEI Te Riu Roa and the Ministry of Education confirmed that the value of kaiārahi i te reo skills, responsibilities and experience has been significantly undervalued because they are predominately wāhine Māori. “He uara nui tō te Kaiārahi i te Reo ki roto i ngā kura huri noa i te motu. Kua tae te wā kia utu tika ai tēnei hunga, kua roa nei e hāpai ana i ngā kaupapa Māori mo te oranga tonutanga o te reo Māori me ōna tikanga. He mea nui tēnei kirimana kia mātou, kia whai mana ai a mātou mahi ahakoa ki hea mātou noho ai,” e ai ki a Lenora Roberts (Te Aitanga-ā-Hauiti, Ngāti Porou) He māngai Kaiārahi i te reo mō te roopu NZEI Te Riu Roa.” The new rates will apply from 20 August 2021, the date NZEI Te Riu Roa and the Ministry of Education confirmed the evidence of historical genderbased undervaluation.

Rosie Clarke, Editor, SchoolNews editor@schoolnews.co.nz

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