By Calvin and Alex, Helensville Primary.
On Wednesday 15th August, 1,479 primary and intermediate schools in New Zealand closed due to the 2018 strike day. The strike happened because teachers wanted more money, they haven’t had a pay rise in nine years and that means their wages have not gone up with inflation. The sad thing is that 40% fewer teachers are in training. Last time teachers had a pay rise guess how much they earned… they didn’t earn an extra $20 or $15 they only earned an extra 20 cents!
We interviewed some people about the strike. According to Mrs Clarke (a teacher at Helensville Primary and a mother of 2) it was a stressful occasion, not only because she didn’t get paid but also because she had to find a place for her children to stay. Although it was also a good thing because teachers need more support.
According to Mrs Stokes (a teacher at Helensville Primary and a mother of 3) “It felt empowering to march down Queen Street because we all had a common cause and the heart of the problem is that our children are not getting the best education they can because the teachers are overworked. When I was marching I thought we would get some negative responses from people, but instead we had a lot of support.”
Haylee and Emma (two students at Helensville Primary) said they were happy about the strike day because they had a day off and felt like the teachers should get paid more because they basically have to handle children all day.
In total, 10,000 teachers marched down Queen Street, Auckland, with many more attending large rallies in Wellington, Hamilton, Whangarei, Dunedin and Christchurch.
We need to support these teachers because eventually we may not have any teachers left!
