This week's ramp-up in the industrial action by teachers is on hold pending the outcome of meetings between the Ministry of Education and the Post Primary Teachers Association in Wellington.

Western Bay of Plenty PPTA chairman Jason Symthe at the teacher strike in downtown Tauranga last month.

Year 11 students were to be the first of a series of year groups to be ‘rostered off', with teachers not being available to teach them for a day.
The action is called off as a measure of good faith after the Ministry assured the secondary teachers its offer is 'worth teachers' while”, says PPTA president Kate Gainsford.

Tauranga teachers are unlikely to hear the results, and what has been offered until Thursday or Friday.
Meanwhile, teachers are continuing a ban on attending meetings before 8.30am and after 5pm and a ban on call-back days.
While the meeting ban sounds innocuous, Western Bay of Plenty PPTA chairman Jason Symthe says the move seriously hampers principals' ability to run their schools.
'It is putting the pressure on,” says Jason.

'We want the Ministry to hear those concerns so that they realise that there is a lot of goodwill from teachers that schools operate on.

'We are hoping the Ministry is starting to realise that.”
Secondary school teachers went on strike for a day last month after negotiations with the Ministry for a new collective agreement broke down.
Further plans to roster home different year levels from next week will still go ahead if the talks prove unproductive.

They include rostering Year 10 home for three days – October 27, November 11 and November 23, and Year 9 for four days - October 20, November 2, November 18 and December 1.