Teachers Stand for Education

Included in the cost-cutting measures the government announced in their May budget were measures designed to cut the cost of primary and secondary education – at the expense of teachers and students. Included in the budget were cuts to teacher numbers by way of “natural attrition”, “performance-based pay” for teachers and alterations to funding ratios that would have seen larger class sizes – especially in intermediate and middle schools where funding for technology subjects was to be seriously reduced.

The reaction from the education sector was swift and damning.  Some schools, especially intermediate schools, stood to lose as many as seven teachers.  Most public schools would lose at least one or two.  Teachers’ unions from across the sector united along with principals’ and parents’ organisations in a series of sector-wide meetings to organise opposition to the assault on education.  They succeeded in squeezing a concession from the government almost immediately.  Only a two days after the budget was released, Education Minister Hekia Parata quickly back-tracked, claiming the government didn’t realise the extent of the damage the cuts would cause and announced measures to limit teacher losses to no more than two per school.

But simply limiting the losses wasn’t enough for teachers, whose jobs were still under threat.  They stuck to their guns and threatened industrial action.  Faced with an educators’ revolt and the threat of strike action, the government was forced to back down.  On June 7 – barely two weeks after the budget – the government announced that it was abandoning its plans to increase teacher-student funding ratios.

Conceding on the issue of class sizes is a blow to the government and their big business backers because it shows up their weakness.  The economic crisis has weakened them considerably but they don’t want to do the one thing that could actually solve the crisis – writing off the debt.  Their only solution is more cutbacks, and when they’re met with staunch resistance – whether at the Ports of Auckland, AFFCO or in the schools – they can be forced to back down.

Market reforms in education

The government’s attempts to cut education spending are part of a set of pro-business ‘neoliberal’ policies that have a long history in the education sector.  Neoliberal reforms in education began after the Labour Party was re-elected in 1987.  Using the language of “parental and community involvement” and “improved learning opportunities”, the Lange government set about extracting what Treasury called “value and efficiency” from the education sector.

The wealthy businessman Brian Picot was appointed to chair a commission tasked with reviewing the management structures and the “cost-effectiveness” of the education system.  Following the Picot commission’s report, subsequent governments restructured the education system.  School zoning was softened and then abolished, a move which in practice allowed wealthiest schools to cherry-pick the highest achievers.  Much of school management was ‘devolved’ to a Board of Trustees for each school, creating competition between schools and encouraging the movement of resources and experienced staff away from rural and low-decile schools.

More recent reforms have also emphasised the degree to which education is supposed to be preparation for entrance to the workforce.  NCEA, while a welcome move away from the old system of norm-referenced testing, was introduced into schools in 2002 with an emphasis on how it would enable potential employers to asses a student’s capabilities.  A new regime of testing primary school children against ‘National Standards’ in the core areas of reading, writing and arithmetic were introduced by the National government in 2010.  Along with limiting the cost of education, this has been the real thrust of education reform, designed to a mass of young workers ready for an increasingly basic, low-wage economy.  Gone are the experimental schools and exploratory learning of the 1960s and in is the “core curriculum”, individual excellence and more and more testing.

Teachers fight back

But none of this has occurred without resistance.  Teachers are one of the best organised sections of the workforce and curriculum changes have added hours to their workload, while budget cuts have put pressure on their pay.  The Post-Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) has led the way in fighting back.  With the introduction of NCEA in 2002 and the increased workload it represented, the PPTA demanded a pay rise and NCEA allowance for teachers in 2001 negotiations for their collective agreement. 

When they were rebuffed by the government, the PPTA initiated a series of one-day strikes that started a national movement.  Stoppages occurred throughout 2002, teachers at several schools took their own initiative in embarking on unauthorised ‘wildcat’ strikes when it became clear that one-day, national actions were not enough.  Dissatisfaction with the haphazard introduction of the new qualification led many students to join their teachers on the picket line and culminated in a series of high-school walkouts that spread like wildfires up and down the country.  Such was the disruption that when the negotiations collapsed again in 2007, the very threat of strike action was enough to bring the government back to the table.

The PPTA struck again in 2010, seeking a 4 % pay increase, measures to increase teacher recruitment and – importantly – a maximum class size of 30.  Thousands of teachers around the country rallied, engaging in a one-day strike followed by rolling stoppages.  Foreshadowing the arguments to be used in the 2012 budget, the government cited studies purporting to prove that the relationship between teachers and their students not class size, was the determining factor in student success; and reprimanded teachers for seeking a pay rise greater than other public servants had been able to win.

While neither the 2002 nor the 2010 strikes were successful in obtaining all their aims, they did succeed in making a number of gains.  They forced the government to grant a small NCEA allowance in 2002 when the government intended not to give one.  Significantly, the PPTA also succeeded in driving government claw backs around class sizes from the table in 2010.  Perhaps most importantly however, their combativeness has enabled teachers’ unions to maintain their organisation and cohesiveness during a period in which most of the union movement has been in decline.  And it was this strength of teachers’ unions that was instrumental in defending class sizes after this years’ budget.

The fight doesn’t end with class sizes, however. The National government remains committed to cutting costs in education, saying that schools will have to find other ways to save money.  National also remains committed to introducing “performance pay” – something teachers have long resisted.  As anyone who has ever been subject to performance pay knows, it is a measure designed to increase workloads at the expense of job security.  But teachers have signalled a willingness to fight – and as the victory over class sizes has shown, if they stick to their guns it’s possible to win.

Cory Anderson

[This article is from the latest issue of our magazine, Socialist Review]

Against the Capitalist Education System

These are notes from a talk Rowan McArthur gave on behalf of the International Socialists at the Socialism 2012 conference in Wellington last weekend. Join the speak-out this Friday in solidarity with the activists arrested at the Auckland demonstrations - meet outside the Student Union at 1pm. The Tertiary Education Union Auckland University branch have put out a statement you can read here.


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I'm relieved that I am here speaking on the subject of university and education in a capitalist system because two days ago I was so swamped with essays I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it. I know I’m not the only one who feels overwhelmed by the workloads and expectations put on us at uni – and at the same time I think we are actually doing more but learning less than students 30 years ago. But more than this we now have to pay ever increasing amounts to be stressed out, get shittier education and if you are unlucky enough to be in an unprofitable department you may be half way through your degree just to be told your subject no longer exist. If it isn’t making money then is it really worth learning? This is the reality of the degree factory.

But even though students are already getting a raw deal it doesn’t end there. As you all know capitalism is once again in crisis and as per usual students all around the world are in the firing line. We are used as an excuse for the failings of capitalism; we are the ones putting a strain on the economy with our extortionate demands for a so called ‘affordable’ education. We are the ones who are failing to pay back our student loans in a ‘reasonable’ amount of time. We are greedy because we see education as a right not a privilege. But we students haven’t been taking this lying down. Inspired by the wider working class resistance in Greece, worldwide occupations, revolutions in the Middle East and the countless acts of resistance, students are also on the frontlines calling for revolution and real change. The past few years we have watched on as students march in mass protests against fee rises in the UK, have running streets battles with police in Chile and in the last few days we’ve seen massive protest in Montreal.

So what is the situation in Aotearoa? The Students here have seen similar neoliberal attacks on their education, there have been wind backs of many concessions won by students in previous decades. Prior to 1990, students paid minimal fees for education. The government set student fee was increased to NZ$1,300 in 1991, but in 1992 tertiary institutions were given the autonomy to set their own fees with no regulation. Since then, students have increasingly borne more of the cost towards public tertiary education in New Zealand, amounting to nothing short of the increased privatisation of our public tertiary education system. User-pays public education, and the notion that the student is a consumer and education a product, is the capitalist logic which comes about in crisis, leading to increasing personal debt. Last year university fees rose by 3.6% on top of the increases since 1990. The New Zealand Union of students association released a statement in April stating 15 per cent of the New Zealand university student population were suffering "absolute financial distress". That’s almost 70,000 students if you base it off the 2010 student numbers. In Dunedin the student trips to the food bank have increased massively, due to the ever increasing cost of living – rent has almost doubled in the past 10 years not to mention food. This financial oppression of Dunedin students, coupled with the atomisation and individualisation of students, is expressed often erratically, like at the Hyde street party this year where over a third of the student population turned out and flats were smashed up, including a caved in roof, in 2006 and 2007 Dunedin saw this expressed in the form of riots and battles with the police.  But this poverty isn’t ending after study - findings from a Ministry of Education survey released in 2011 showed that 39% of graduates did not earn any sum of money for at least one of the first four years after graduating. 11% did not earn any money at all during that four-year period. Overall, the proportion of young people who are not employed but are engaged in study has increased since the downturn. Youth engagement in study rose from 34.2% in 2009 to 36.4% in 2011. That’s an increase in the numbers of student which means increase in student poverty and an increase in private debt too.

The current budget isn’t making this any better. The Budget 2012 student support package is underpinned by the principle that students should make a greater contribution to their tertiary education – as quoted from a pro national website. Basically what the budget states is as a student you leave university with massive debt in a time of high youth and national unemployment and then have to pay more back if you do eventually get a job and if you don’t you get tracked by a high tech data system forcing you to pay. If you are unlucky enough to continue into postgrad you can get no living allowance increasing your debt even further.

 We are the indebted generation!

So why is it so important that we fight against the current budget, fee rises and other attacks on students. There is a lot more at stake than us just not wanting to pay. Education is a right not a privilege. And with ever increasing university fees, an emphasis on profitable departments especially in the sciences, the current state of capitalism and pushes to pay back loans faster this right has been taken away for many people, epically from the working class and disenfranchised. This is precisely why we need to fight back. This is precisely why students are fighting back in all the major centres in Aotearoa. Last night we saw 43 out of 400 odd students arrested in protest against the budget in Auckland. Last year in response to OUSA calling students out to protest VSM over 500 turned up in 24 hours’ notice to harass John Key. The creation of student activist groups like WATU are an attempt to radicalise the campuses. Otago campus is yet to have a real student radicalisation but the overnight show of 500 people and the national student uprisings goes to shows the volatility of the campus.

Don't lock us out of education: Budget Day 2012

Thursday 24th is the day when the national budget for the coming year will be announced for the first time. Based on what has already been announced and discussed in the media, we can expect the most deeply cutting attacks on workers, beneficiaries and students in decades.

At Victoria University the students' association VUWSA and campaign group "We Are The University" (WATU) are organising a march from Campus down to Parliament under the banner of "Don't lock us out of education" to protest the proposed changes to the student allowance scheme, including limiting access to 4 years and effectively lowering the parental income cap which determines eligibility. These changes will make it even more difficult for those from low income backgrounds to gain qualifications, and make postgraduate work nearly impossible. They are also opposing proposed changes to how courses are funded at government level, which will see money being taken away from arts and humanities courses deemed to be of "low economic impact".

The National government claims to have a mandate to visciously impose auterity measures on workers, beneficiaries and students in New Zealand, while pouring millions of dollars of public money into private coffers. Only by organising collectively can we take a stand against they who would steal from the pockets of the poor to benefit themselves.

We will be meeting tomorrow at 12 noon in the Hunter Courtyard at the centre of the Kelburn Campus.

Kevin Hodder