Guinea Pigs Campaign Just A Start

"Concerned Teachers disrupted the Minister of Education's speech to the PPTA Annual Conference this morning" said Concerned Teachers spokesperson Peter Calvert.

"Following Mallard's speech in which he claimed only a small minority (see below) were opposed to the NCEA (the replacement for School C), two Concerned Teachers who had penetrated security at the Conference released guinea pigs into the hall."

Mr Calvert stated that in 1997 PPTA annual conference voted "that teachers are not to be used as guinea pigs for any under resourced, untested qualifications systems". Yet the PPTA leadership had allowed this to occur and were publicly urging members to vote yes in the upcoming ballot.

"Teachers are sick of being used - along with their students - as guinea pigs for the Minister's educational experiments. The Minister and PPTA should know that this morning's action is just the start of a more hard nosed campaign to stop the NCEA in its tracks."

"We acknowledge the concerns of animal rights groups about using guinea pigs in this way. However we feel the rights of students to not be used as guinea pigs outweighs those concerns."

For More information contact:

Peter Calvert 021 2111 825 or Maggie Lovekin-Pitman 025 661 0262

E-mail ConcernedTeachers@xtra.co.nz

Website www.concernedteachers.com

"Within the next few weeks, your members will be deciding their support for the NCEA. I sincerely hope the vote will be in favour of it.

I believe that teachers recognise the shortfalls of the current system and with the exception of a small minority, are generally in favour of the concept of the NCEA."

Trevor Mallard Speech to PPTA annual Conference 2000-09-27

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