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Francesca Rudkin: Let's respect our teachers · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: According to an article in the New Zealand Herald this morning,
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  Speaker 1: fewer people want to be teachers. Teacher education is still
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a really popular field of study, but both Canterbury and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: O Tiger Universities have seen a decline in teaching student
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: enrollments over the past four years. So initial data shows
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: that Canterbury has nine hundred and sixty four students enrolled
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  Speaker 1: in a course in twenty twenty five, down from one thousand,
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty one four years ago. It Tigo
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: has followed a similar trend, with student numbers dropping from
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty to four hundred and ninety five
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: in the same period. A national Politech has seen the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: lowest number of first year teaching students since it formed
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. So it is not the best news
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: when we're facing a teacher shortage, is it. PPTA president
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  Speaker 1: Chris Abercrombie said the downward trend is extremely worrying, but
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  Speaker 1: I'm not surprised by this. All we seem to hear
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: about our issues around pay conditions and the challenges challenge
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of changes to the curriculum, and then there are the
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  Speaker 1: parents who don't have the time to support their children
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: in their education, but complain about teachers and their children
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: don't reach their expectations. Look, I can understand paying conditions
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: being a red flag for someone heading into teaching, but
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  Speaker 1: teachers have worked hard advocating for themselves when it comes
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to pay and the government has accepted conditions need to improve.
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  Speaker 1: But it's in all our best interests that we attract
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  Speaker 1: good people passionate about education to the profession. And while
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: we may not be able to do much about the
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: paying conditions outside a general election, we can do something
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  Speaker 1: to push back on the shift and attitude towards teachers
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  Speaker 1: which has crept up in recent years, preventing some from
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  Speaker 1: considering the idea of becoming a teacher. Chris Abercronbie said
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  Speaker 1: that one of the things they often hear is the
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  Speaker 1: lack of respect from the community from politicians, and people
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: are like, well, why do I want to go into
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  Speaker 1: a profession that has that. As in any industry, there
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  Speaker 1: are great teachers, good and some who may be a
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  Speaker 1: bit useless, But we need to be championing our teachers.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Teachers play a massive formulative role in our children's lives.
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  Speaker 1: Some even change a young person's life or what kids
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: believe is possible. Just over three years ago, a young
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: lady rather close to me started high school, had a
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: bit of a hiccup, and was at school for about
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  Speaker 1: half of years nine and ten. In year eleven she
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: started a new school, and this year she aims to
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  Speaker 1: wrap up school and complete year thirteen a year early,
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  Speaker 1: before heading to university to do a science degree. There
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: isn't a person who knows what she's been through who
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: isn't stunned by this turnaround. A lot of it is
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: down to this remarkable young lady. She's worked hard to
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: get back on track and look, she loves loves to study.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: But it's also thanks to a series of extraordinary teachers
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  Speaker 1: who also just happen to be extraordinary humans that she
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  Speaker 1: is where she is today. So if we want the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: best outcome for our children and their future, maybe we
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: should all just stop waning about teachers. Maybe we should
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: start by showing some respect for more family edition with
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Ryan's Bridge. Listen live to news talks it be from
• 3:02
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