PUBLIC school teachers across the state will begin a strike tomorrow morning to “demand respect” from the State Government during ongoing enterprise bargaining negotiations.
It will be the first time public school teachers have walked off the job in a decade and follows rallies held in Adelaide and regional centres in October.
During the state-wide campaign last month, Australian Education Union members collectively moved a motion to “condemn and deplore budget cuts and proposed TAFE campus closures”.
Lucindale Area School principal and AEU executive elected member Adrian Maywald said an “overwhelming majority” of union members had voted in favour of industrial action.
“After six months of negotiations, we still have no agreements around country incentives, class sizes, extra resources or specialist teachers,” Mr Maywald told The Border Watch.
“Union representatives have put forward approximately 128 items and only two of those have been tabled.
“We want to see some conditions in place that will allow us to deliver education as best as we possibly can.”
Teachers will march from The Rail to the Education Department office on Commercial Street West from 9.30am.
The half-day strike will end at 12.15pm.
Mr Maywald said AEU members were campaigning to reduce class sizes, improve funding and support for every child and for country schools.
“We all want a world-class public system to improve students’ learning outcomes and that is not possible without the necessary resources,” he said.
Meanwhile, Treasurer Rob Lucas said the Marshall State Government was delivering a record investment in education – with recurrent annual funding for schools increasing by $515 million from 2017/18 to 2021/22.
“Union bosses should be discussing with the government the best ways to spend this massive increase in funding to positively impact student learning outcomes, rather than going on strike,” Mr Lucas said.
