Wednesday 26 Jun 2002

It is appalling that the PPTA will waste the school holidays instead of using them to work on a deal with the Government, ACT Education Spokesman MP Donna Awatere Huata said today.

"The school holidays are an ideal time for the negotiators and bureaucrats to sit down, shut up and work hard on a deal. They've got to get that deal ratified by teachers as soon as possible. If that means teachers lose one day of their holidays, it's a small price.

"By wasting the holidays, the PPTA risks turning parents completely against teachers. PPTA is sending a message that they're happy to strike in school time and leave children in the lurch, but their holidays are sacrosanct.

"This entire mess is evidence that old-fashioned, centralised negotiations between the Government and one union don't work. Our kids are losing out because politicians won't admit the system is a failure. What we need to do is devolve funding to individual schools. Individual communities should be free to pay good teachers more, rather than relying on out-of-touch bureaucrats and a foolhardy union," Mrs Awatere Huata said.

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