'The job has become insurmountable so why would you do it?”

These are the words of Oropi School principal Andrew King who will be striking alongside 30,000 primary teachers and principals next week.

NZEI Te Riu Roa members rejected a second offer from the Ministry of Education to settle their collective agreements and voted to strike on Thursday March 16.

The 30,000 education union members will join PPTA secondary school teachers who are striking on the same day.

This means up to 50,000 teachers will be participating in industrial action next week.

King says the offer for primary principals of $4000 this year, then a 3 per cent increase on the base salary in 2024 pus a $750 lump sum payment is 'in effect a pay drop” because it didn't keep up with inflation.

The offer also didn't address the issue of pay relativity between secondary school and primary school principals, he says.

'If I was to compare a school of my size with a secondary school, the secondary principal would be earning more than me.”

His rural school in Oropi has a roll of around 350 students.

Oropi School principal Andrew King wants the issue of principal retention addressed. Photo: John Borren/SunLive.

The 'particularly challenging” issue the offer didn't address was attracting people to become a principal and retaining those already in the role, says King.

Primary teachers at the top of pay scale could earn more or just below what a principal earns, especially in a small school, he says.

'A lot of principals, through the stress of Covid and the climate that we've got at the moment of heaps of change going on, means that the jobs just become insurmountable and too hard.

'Why would you do it? When really your take home pay is not much different to being a teacher,” says King.

'A principal in a self-governing school is accountable to everything. Why would you have your head on the chopping block for not much more pay?”

On the issue of retention, King says: 'Sixty per cent of our principal workforce has five years or less experience.

'Which is a huge issue, and that's a growing percentage of inexperienced principals, and a number of experienced principals are leaving for other jobs in other sectors.

'The experience and expertise in principalship is getting less and less and less by the year,” he says.

'I'm 15 years into principalship and I can't say it gets easier each year, it just changes.”

Teachers striking in Tauranga in 2019. Photo: Daniel Hines/SunLive.

Asked what members thoughts were on having to strike, King said: 'It's very mixed in terms of opinion on strike action and, particularly with principals, whether strike action is going to make a difference, but it's a last resort.

'It really is a last resort to highlight that we're not happy.”

NZEI president Mark Potter reiterates King's sentiment: 'Strike action is the last thing we want to do, but members want to send a message to the government about how serious we are about needing change.”

'The current offers from the government don't do enough for teachers, principals or tamariki,” he says.

A statement from the union says teachers and principals want the Government to increase staffing and funding to schools and kindergartens so that teachers can better meet the needs of children, and to improve current pay offers in order to attract and retain people in the teaching profession.

Potter says the pay component of the offer did not meet cost of living increases members were facing, but pay was only one part of the decision to strike.

He says the current offers did little to address serious issues around funding and understaffing, ratios and sick leave.

'Of course, the rising cost of living plays into this, but the bigger picture is that if we are to retain and attract quality educators, we must improve work conditions in the sector.

'We all want the best for our students but without changes to the system we can't give it to them. This affects tamariki, because teacher's working conditions are children's learning conditions.”

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