South West teachers meet in Manjimup during stop-work action

Teachers from schools across the South West have participated in a stop-action meeting, joining educators from more than 80 public schools across the State walking off the job. Teachers from Manjimup Senior High School, East Manjimup Primary School, Boyup Brook District High School and Pemberton DHS left their jobs on Tuesday morning for the stop-work meeting over pay and working conditions, meeting at the Manjimup Imperials’ clubrooms. Manjimup maths teacher and union representative Jamie Dalton said the meeting was to show solidarity for the union and to help with the fight towards better conditions and pay. “The union for all public school teachers in WA called a stop-work for today, and we co-ordinated a stop-work action for our area, which includes Pemberton, Bridgetown, Nannup and Boyup Brook,” he said. “We came together to show solidarity for the union WA-wide, in our fight for more support in classrooms and for more pay. “The union is fighting to get improved conditions to help teachers deal with the workload and the stressors involved, and to make it a more attractive occupation for younger people looking to get into.” “The increase in workload and perceived lack of support, which we could get if the government fully funded the schools, is the biggest stressors.” Bridgetown High School science teacher Kylie Tizard said the current teaching system was “broken” and vacant positions hadn’t been filled due a teacher shortage. “With the placements that haven’t been filled, due to the teacher shortages, we’re very concerned about pay and the conditions that is making the job difficult to do and making people leave,” she said. “I’ve been a teacher for 30 years, and the demands have substantially increased and many of the things we’ve been asked to do, we haven’t had the time or the resources to do. “We have a greater understanding of students with particular learning needs than we did when I started teaching, and we want to do the best we can with them, but we’re not given the time or resources to do it properly.” Ms Tizard said she hoped the Department of Education and Education Minister Tony Buti would take the union’s requests seriously. “Workload is a massive issue that they’ve not discussed or taken on board at all, and they’re the sort of the things we’d like them to truly engage the union on,” she said.