Paraparaumu College held a lunchtime barbecue during the secondary school teachers’ strike with funds raised going to the Kāpiti Community Foodbank.

Despite no students being present, because of the strike, various staff braved the polar blast conditions to grab a sausage sizzle and support the charity.

Helping with the barbecue was Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Wellington regional chair Kevin Greig who said there had been a 7.3 per cent increase in inflation over the past 12 months, with a predicted 6 per cent increase for the next 12 months.

Greig said he’s fighting for the new teachers, who despite having a four-year degree, are only being paid about $1 more than minimum wage.

 “Someone packing supermarket shelves, or somewhere else, is making just $1 less than first-year teachers.”

A lot of potential teachers were thinking twice about the profession.

“It’s not an attractive profession like it used to be.”

He said a lot of new teachers had student loan debts, and with the cost of living being so high many of them couldn’t afford to even buy a block of cheese.

 “It doesn’t matter if you can buy a cheaper phone if you can’t even buy a loaf of bread.”

Another teacher, who didn’t want to be named, said that if nothing happens in the next 5-10 years there will be no teachers.

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The teacher went on to say that education is one of the pillars of society and that the Government needed to invest in the future – children.

“If we lose education, society fails,” the teacher said.

“You can’t invest in the past, you have to invest in the future,” Greig added.

Greig said it’s not all about money either, but for him at the higher end of the scale, it’s also about working conditions.

He said teachers are being asked to do more tasks for the same pay and asked, “when did teachers become other professions?”.

He said that teachers’ conditions are being extended all the time.

“If you’re going to add another brick to the wall, tell us which one to take off.”

He added that “the wall” is at its maximum capacity.

“We’re being asked to do more and there’s no recognition of what we need to do less to be able to do more.”

Greig also said that with truancy becoming a big issue, teachers and families are taking all the blame, and said the Ministry of Education needs to take responsibility too.

“The ministry needs to take responsibility because they are the oversight.”

There are over 20,000 members of the PPTA, and after being polled twice about what action needs to be taken, Greig said it’s clear they are all fed up.

“It’s very frustrating.”

Also manning the barbecue was Paraparaumu College Post Primary School Teachers’ (PPTA) union representative Elliot Pilmore, who said despite inflation, teachers’ wages are not increasing.

“We’re losing our best teachers overseas.”