Fairness @ Work Plays of the Week Issue 9

Welcome to Plays of the Week - a weekly heads up from the Council of Trade Unions Fairness @ Work campaign.  Tips, tools and news to help you start worksite conversations each week about the real stories this election.  Print off or forward 'Plays of the Week' to workmates, family and friends, and better still let them know they can sign up for it from the CTU website.

Quality public education - worth voting for 
Policies like 20 hours free early childhood education (ECE) and interest-free student loans are among the big improvements in education we’ve seen over the last 9 years. We have also seen 6,000 new teachers above roll growth, 80,000 more people per year in industry training, school bulk funding scrapped, and a more collaborative tertiary sector. 42 new schools and kura have been built.  And new funding has been directed to schools’ operational grants, staff-to-children ratios of 1:15 at new entrants level, pay parity for early childhood and kindy teachers and to universities for salary increases.

Lots done, more to do 
Kiwi children are among the best learners in the world but the bottom 20 percent of students score significantly lower in international comparisons, and policies that attract and retain quality teachers, reduce class sizes and build on 20 hours free ECE are needed to address this.  Coordinated, well funded tertiary education needs to continue, with priority on funding public tertiary institutions, rather than a market model that allows ‘for-profit’ providers to receive public funding at the expense of public institutions.

Did you know?
Did you know - that Kiwi children are among the best learners in the world? We rank third in literacy and seventh in science out of more than 50 countries in a 2006 survey.  As mentioned above, it is the tail of children, the bottom 20 per cent, where we rank lower, and where our efforts must go.

What's happening 
Check out this page for election events in your area: http://union.org.nz/event.  This week there are more events in Christchurch and Tauranga.  

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