Media Release February 7th, 2001

Secondary teachers union barking up the wrong tree

The secondary teachers union is barking up the wrong tree in seeking a pay rise to compensate for the Government's new internally assessed qualifications system being introduced next year, the Employers & Manufacturers Association says.

"Assessing students' performance is an important part of a teacher's job and asking for an extra $2500 to do it is just opportunistic," said Alasdair Thompson, EMA's chief executive.

"If more people are required to cope with a greater workload that results as part of the new internal assessment system, then more teachers should be hired. After all, less resource will be employed on external examinations with the new system in place.

"The PPTA's hand out for extra pay is an insult to the community's intelligence.

"Its demands would be more credible if it advocated higher salaries for the teachers who achieve the best results; the one size pay demand for all teachers is plainly ridiculous.

"Much more important is whether the new qualifications system will result in education standards being raised. This issue is disturbing as there are seriously divided views over it and we cannot afford to take risks with it."

Further comments: Alasdair Thompson tel 09 367 0911 (bus) 09 303 3951 (hme) 025 982 024

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