Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Education Department's Saeed Amin says schools will remain open when teachers strike next week

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NT Education Department's Saeed Amin says schools will remain open when teachers strike next week · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: But of course plenty of parents out there wondering exactly
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  Speaker 1: what's going to happen next Thursday when we know this
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  Speaker 1: day of action is going to be taking place. According
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  Speaker 1: to the unions, we were certainly informed yesterday by the
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  Speaker 1: Australian Education Union's Northern Territory branch that this day of
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  Speaker 1: action is going to happen first of September. They say
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  Speaker 1: it's in response to the government's refusal to lose the
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  Speaker 1: wage freeze. So essentially teachers are going to be stepping
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  Speaker 1: off work or stopping work i should say, for the day.
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  Speaker 1: Correctional officers are also going to be stopping work for
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  Speaker 1: twelve hours, and then by the sounds of things, we
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  Speaker 1: will see other departments and other areas across the public
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  Speaker 1: service they're at that day of action, but lots of
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  Speaker 1: parents wondering you're still going to be able to send
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  Speaker 1: the kids to school. Now joining me on the line
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  Speaker 1: right now is the Education Department's Deputy Chief Executive of
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  Speaker 1: Regional Services.
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  Speaker 2: So Ed, Amen, good morning to you, Good.
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  Speaker 3: Morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: So Ed, do you talk us through what is going
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  Speaker 1: to be the situation next Thursday. Are schools going to
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  Speaker 1: remain opened?
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  Speaker 4: Schools are going to remain open yet, I do want
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  Speaker 4: to thank our hard working teachers and school staff or
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  Speaker 4: their ongoing commitment in this space, in particular, Katie, last
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  Speaker 4: Friday when we had the half day stoppage in Darwin
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  Speaker 4: and Palmerstan, all schools remained open. You know, I think
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  Speaker 4: in the last few years we've all endured enormous challenges,
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  Speaker 4: haven't we. But our education and school staff have done
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  Speaker 4: a great job in ensuring that schools have stayed open
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  Speaker 4: that are moral imperative and not only supporting every child
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  Speaker 4: to engage in schooling, but also supporting parents and communities
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  Speaker 4: in ensuring that you know, students can go to school
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  Speaker 4: and parents can go to work.
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  Speaker 3: So yes, schools will be open.
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  Speaker 2: That is good to hear.
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  Speaker 1: Do we have any idea at this point in time
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  Speaker 1: whether every school across Darwin and Alla Springs is going
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  Speaker 1: to be impacted or just how many any schools might
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  Speaker 1: be impacted.
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  Speaker 3: That's a really good question.
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  Speaker 4: And look, it's not really about how many schools. It's
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  Speaker 4: actually about how many union members will choose to take
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  Speaker 4: that day to stop it. So some schools may have
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  Speaker 4: a you know, a large number of union members. Some
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  Speaker 4: schools may not have any. But what will happen during
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  Speaker 4: the course of next week is that schools will ascertain
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  Speaker 4: as best as they can which staff may not be there,
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  Speaker 4: which staff will be there, and then they will communicate
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  Speaker 4: that to their community. So, you know, we are really
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  Speaker 4: confident that the work we're doing at the moment, and
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  Speaker 4: the work schools are doing, will be able to make
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  Speaker 4: sure that their communities are fully informed about what will
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  Speaker 4: happen on Thursday.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, that is really good to hear, and I
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  Speaker 1: know this, you know, that'll be the major concern from
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  Speaker 1: a lot of parents. So we did hear last week
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  Speaker 1: when that stock work action happened on Friday last week.
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  Speaker 1: I know that at the school that my children went to,
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  Speaker 1: some of the teachers did still go to school, not
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  Speaker 1: because they weren't union members, but because they said that
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  Speaker 1: they really couldn't.
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  Speaker 2: Afford to have a day off.
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  Speaker 1: What is the situation when, you know, when a teacher,
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  Speaker 1: you know it does step out for industrial action, presumably
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  Speaker 1: they don't get paid.
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  Speaker 2: For that day.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Look, I'm not exactly sure of the industrial laws,
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  Speaker 4: of course, but I do know that it's a choice,
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  Speaker 4: and our teachers last fright, they were highly professional. Some
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  Speaker 4: you know, they all made individual choices, which of course
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  Speaker 4: we respect, and if some did go, they were highly professional,
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  Speaker 4: If some state, they were highly professional, and their colleagues
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  Speaker 4: were highly professional. And certainly, you know, the union has
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  Speaker 4: made that very strong point in my conversation with the union,
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  Speaker 4: that there really are stressing that this is a you know,
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  Speaker 4: in terms of teachers working with other teachers, that there
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  Speaker 4: is a sense of professionalism and each will support each other.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that last week as well, there were
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  Speaker 1: some teachers who'd done preparatory work to make sure that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that the day didn't impact the students in
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  Speaker 1: their classes too heavily, which I think just goes to
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  Speaker 1: show you you know, that the teachers will fundamentally the
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  Speaker 1: main priority.
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  Speaker 2: Is the students that they're teaching.
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  Speaker 1: But you know they are they are taking this industrial action,
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  Speaker 1: as we will know, for various reasons. So do we,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, do we have any idea how many teachers
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  Speaker 1: may actually take action?
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  Speaker 3: So we don't.
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  Speaker 4: We won't know that, you know, in its complete entirety
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  Speaker 4: get until Thursday. We obviously, principals will work really hard
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  Speaker 4: in trying to ascertain who will and won't, but it is,
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  Speaker 4: you know, for for reasons the privacy and confidentiality, we
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  Speaker 4: don't see how many union members might be in school.
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  Speaker 4: But I will say that, you know, the level of
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  Speaker 4: professionalism last week in Down and Patison allowed all of
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  Speaker 4: those schools to function really well. And as you said earlier,
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  Speaker 4: teachers are highly professional in this space. Some will prepare lessons,
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  Speaker 4: some will choose not to go, will choose to go,
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  Speaker 4: and their colleagues will will work around that. So again
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  Speaker 4: we're confident at this stage that you know, this will
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  Speaker 4: be managed and absolutely parents can take their children to school.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: I have had one parent get in contact with me
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  Speaker 1: saying that you know that their school is due to
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  Speaker 1: have sports.
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  Speaker 2: Carnival on that day.
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  Speaker 1: What's going to happen for schools that may be in
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  Speaker 1: situations like that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, So schools will start to make some decisions around
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  Speaker 4: their timetable for that day, and obviously there might be
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  Speaker 4: some amendments to timetables, or there might be some activities
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  Speaker 4: like sports carnivals that can go ahead. You know, we
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  Speaker 4: will as a whole department. We're in place to support
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  Speaker 4: schools with sending stuff up from corporate, from our corporate
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  Speaker 4: offices and our regional offices. So if it means that
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  Speaker 4: the day is better served with a sports carnival because
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  Speaker 4: staff supervision is able to be done, then that will happen.
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  Speaker 4: If it means that there's a adjustment to timetables or
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  Speaker 4: changing of is et cetera, then you know that will happen.
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  Speaker 4: Parents can certainly expect that in some cases their students
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  Speaker 4: may or the children may have different teachers. But again
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  Speaker 4: those those you know, that kind of intel will be
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  Speaker 4: worked out during the course of the week, Kadian and
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  Speaker 4: each school's communities will be informed.
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  Speaker 1: And said, again, you know, we know that this is
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  Speaker 1: obviously going to be the second lot of industrial action
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  Speaker 1: in about three weeks. What kind of impact is it
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  Speaker 1: going to have though, if we sort of see rolling
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  Speaker 1: industrial action.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a really good question, and it's obviously not
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  Speaker 4: a space that.
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  Speaker 3: I can enter in terms of the industrial actions.
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  Speaker 4: We're not quite you know, we're not quite Switzerland, but
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  Speaker 4: we do take a neutral position on that. Our job
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  Speaker 4: really is to ensure school stays open, students are supervised
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  Speaker 4: in a state manner, and as best as possible.
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  Speaker 3: Continuity of learning continues.
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  Speaker 4: And you know, and we've got year twelve and year
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  Speaker 4: eleven that really important places in their learning.
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  Speaker 3: Again, I can only sank teachers.
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  Speaker 4: Last week. We made sure that that continuity of learning
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  Speaker 4: continued and we are again at this point confident that
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  Speaker 4: that will happen.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess it must become hard though, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if like you said there, even with those year twelve students, etc.
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  Speaker 1: If we do get to the point where it's happening
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  Speaker 1: more often, it must become a bit more difficult for
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  Speaker 1: the Education Department to try to manage the schools staying
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  Speaker 1: opened well always.
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  Speaker 4: But again, Katie, I think we'll face that bridge when
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  Speaker 4: we come to it. Our experience last week demonstrated the
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  Speaker 4: great strength and.
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  Speaker 3: The agility of our schools.
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  Speaker 4: And I can't speak highly enough of the staff in
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  Speaker 4: schools and in regional offices in corporate who supported schools
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  Speaker 4: in that space and you know where at this point
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  Speaker 4: we're confident that will be able to manage certainly next week.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, said im in the Education Department's Deputy Chief
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  Speaker 1: Executive of Regional Services. I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Like I said, I know there's lots of parents that
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  Speaker 1: listen to the show a lot of them will be
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  Speaker 1: wondering or would have been wondering what the situation is
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  Speaker 1: for next Thursday, So we really appreciate you answering those
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  Speaker 1: questions for us.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 4: In again, scores will be open Katie, thank you for
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  Speaker 4: your time.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you