‘It’s only one day’: How parents plan to manage during teachers’ strike

3 months ago 21

Nisa Young has two small children and, in a strange pandemic flashback, has spent the week deciding whether to keep her school-aged daughter home during Wednesday’s teachers’ strike while dialling into her office job.

“It’s only one day, and if you can help teachers in any way, I think it’s something that parents should support,” Young said.

She’s one of many parents who Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson said offered “overwhelming community support” to some 38,000 state school teachers who will walk off the job, in the first strike of its kind in more than 15 years.

Brisbane resident Nisa Young said she was prepared to keep her daughter at home while teachers strike on Wednesday.

While Young, who lives in Brisbane’s south, ultimately expected to send her eldest child to school on Wednesday, she said she had no qualms about the overall disruption.

“I don’t think they get paid enough … I feel like [they] need to have more support,” Young said.

“If you have the kind of teacher who doesn’t care, you, as a parent, also feel like, ‘OK, what’s the need of it’, but ... my kid’s class [teacher], she’s amazing – I have nothing bad to say about her. I wish I had a teacher like her when I was five and six.”

Young said her daughter’s teacher was early in her career, and the mother wanted to see young teachers supported “so they don’t feel like they’re doing it just for nothing”.

Last week, when announcing the strike – which was backed by more than 95 per cent of members – Richardson said it was about more than wages.

“Make no mistake, this is not a teachers’ pay issue, this is a whole of community issue, ensuring enough qualified people are in our schools teaching and guiding students,” she said.

Queensland has recorded a year-on-year decrease in retention rates in its public education sector, with attrition increasing by about 1.7 percentage points from 2020 to 2024.

The union said violence and aggression had been a major contributor to the exodus.

Although negotiations with the government on pay scaling had been progressing, with the government’s last offer reducing the time taken to become a senior teacher from 15 years to 11, QTU said the state’s previous pay offer of 8 per cent over three years would have made Queensland teachers among the lowest paid in the country by the end of the agreement.

Richardson said on Tuesday afternoon the union was focused on ensuring the strike “delivers a clear message to the government that school communities have the right number of staff and teachers, and school leaders feel valued and respected”.

While QTU encouraged parents to keep their school-aged children at home during Wednesday’s strike, the Education Department said schools would remain open, providing “appropriate support” to students and “alternative arrangements” if staff numbers fell too low.

“Schools have communicated with their school communities about the provision of other services, such as excursions, tuck shops and outside school hours care,” a department spokesperson said.

“The safety and supervision of students during the protected industrial action has been prioritised in the development of contingency plans.”