A submission against charter schools by Sav Wallis
Junior finally turns up
After missing most of the year
I ask if he doesn’t want to be here or there, then where does he want to be?
He said he doesn’t want to be anywhere
Our children are not for sale
Mele keeps falling asleep during class
When I ask her if she got enough sleep
She said she worked a night shift then came straight to school
Our children are not for sale
David has an anxiety attack in the middle of class because he doesn’t want to fail again
When he struggles to do the work
He doesn’t want to disappoint everyone
Our children are not for sale
On gate duty after school, I ask Tina how her break was
She said boring
I joke with her to try cheer her up
She says it’s because her uncle passed away
Our children are not for sale
James is fighting with his dad and see the counsellor most days
Ofa barely has time to study outside of training and church and work and family
Our children are not for sale
Charter schools want to turn our children’s education into profit
To line someone’s back pocket
When my students can barely afford to bring a pen to school
And their parents can barely afford to the weekly shop
Because of rising costs
Or a school jumper for those icy winter mornings in a freezing underfunded classroom
in a building older than the teacher inside
Our children are not for sale
People who don’t know what these kids go through want to put more money
Into the hands of people who don’t need it
and take it from the hands who are trying to make a difference with the spare charge they are given
Into the hands of people who don’t know what being a teacher really means
Into the hands of people who have no idea what our kids really need
Our children are not for sale
Teachers who deal with a hundred kids in a day and with each of them come their 100 problems
Making thousands of decisions
Whilst getting paid thousands less than a back bench MP
Teachers who might lose their jobs to people who aren’t even trained to be teachers
Trained to deliver a curriculum
Trained to plan a lesson
Trained to stop a fight
Trained to have a student confide in you
Trained to then reassure that upset student
Trained to call an angry parent
Trained to stay calm in a moments of chaos
Trained to learn how to deliver a new curriculum and quickly
Trained to mark assessments
Trained to defend a naughty student
Trained to manage the behaviour of 30 children
Trained to answer the questions of those 30 children being asked all at once
Trained to work evenings, weekends and even during “all the school holidays we get”
Not trained to care
but we do because
Our children,
their education,
and their future are
Not. For. Sale.
I ask that this select committee does not allow the Education and Training Amendment bill to pass/go forward.
I ask that this select committee advises that no other legislation regarding charter schools goes into effect.
I ask that this select committee does everything in its power to stop charter schools being reintroduced into Aotearoa’s education system.
Ngā mihi nui