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Speaker 1: The Post Primary Teachers Association the PPTA says the government's

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Speaker 1: plan to plug the teacher shortage with unregistered relievers will

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Speaker 1: short change thousands of young students. On Friday, the government

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Speaker 1: announced a series of short term actions to utilize relief

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Speaker 1: teachers to ease the pressure on schools. The Teaching Council

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Speaker 1: will loosen eligibility criteria for limited authorities to teach or

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Speaker 1: lats to allow previously registered teachers to receive a LAT.

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Speaker 1: Chris Abercrombie is the PPTA president. He's with us this morning. Chris,

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Speaker 1: good morning, good morning, Thanks for being with me. What's

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Speaker 1: what's wrong with this?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's just as a short term, knee jerk reaction

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Speaker 2: to this issue instead of thinking about how can we

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Speaker 2: solve this issue. We've been asking the government for governments

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Speaker 2: for many years to deal with the issue. It's knee

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Speaker 2: short term reaction.

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Speaker 1: We will talk about that because there is a whole

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Speaker 1: section in the minister's letter about long term. But this

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Speaker 1: is short term and your they're being short changed. Can

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Speaker 1: you tell us exactly what So we have a relief teacher,

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Speaker 1: normal teacher goes down sick or on a training day

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Speaker 1: or whatever. Relief teacher comes in. Who is that relief teacher?

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Speaker 1: Not registered?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so they won't be a registered teacher. That won't

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Speaker 2: might not be a qualified teacher. They will literally potentially

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Speaker 2: just be a warm body in the room.

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Speaker 1: Okay, is that that big of a deal if the teachers,

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Speaker 1: I mean, how often are the teachers sick?

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Speaker 2: Well, we know it's a big issue at the moment.

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Speaker 2: We know the schools all around this country that are

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Speaker 2: usterrian students home every single day, and we know that

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Speaker 2: principles are talent and us. Continual use of relievers, continual

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Speaker 2: disruptions like this is having a real impact on schools

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Speaker 2: and kids enjoy them in a school.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but you've got to have someone in front of

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Speaker 1: them in class. Don't you so better at a warm

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Speaker 1: body than nobody?

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Speaker 2: Well, absolutely, you've got to have somebody in it. But again,

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Speaker 2: this is a knee jerk reaction to an issue that

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Speaker 2: has existed for years and that we have been constantly

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Speaker 2: trying to wish the government to solve. One of the

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Speaker 2: other ways that you do that is pain relievers more.

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Speaker 2: That is one of the issues, and so we've we've

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Speaker 2: been constantly trying to get increases in the will ever pay.

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Speaker 2: We've got some of the last clip around when there's

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Speaker 2: one one way to deal with us.

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Speaker 1: They're looking at practicing certificates, they're looking at the number

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Speaker 1: or the maximum number of half days that can be done.

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Speaker 1: There is longer term stuff there, but as a as

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Speaker 1: a as an immediate you know, if things are as

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Speaker 1: bad as you say they are, Chris, surely you would

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Speaker 1: be celebrating the fact that there would be more available

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Speaker 1: warm bodies to look after kids.

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Speaker 2: All that's this you just nail looking after kids, not

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Speaker 2: teaching kids, not educating kids, not helping them. They're just

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Speaker 2: looking after them. And you know that's these kids deserve more.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but if it's on, I mean, how often are

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Speaker 1: teachers sick?

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Speaker 2: Well, as I say, there's there's a huge issue with

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Speaker 2: teachers a case Siven and Roster's teachers home for students

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Speaker 2: home because of teacher illness PLD. We've got significant curriculum

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Speaker 2: and sister change coming up. These are all things impacting

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Speaker 2: on the ability of teachers to be in the classroom.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I still understand if the teachers are going

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Speaker 1: home sec or with personal development or whatever it is,

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Speaker 1: and you're having to send students home because there's no teacher.

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Speaker 1: Wouldn't you prefer that there was someone there?

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Speaker 2: Well, there's someone there. But the issue is that these

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Speaker 2: young people deserve a teacher in front of them, not

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Speaker 2: just a person. And that's that's our belief. We've always had.

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Speaker 2: That belief is that that's the best thing for our

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Speaker 2: young people as a qualified regis teacher in front of them.

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Speaker 2: And that's what we want, that's what our parents expect,

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Speaker 2: that's what our communities expect.

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Speaker 1: All right, Chris, thank you very much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning. Appreciate it. Chris Abercrombie, PPTA President.

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