Two weeks after Darwin teachers went on strike to protest the Government's wage freeze, educators all across the NT put down their red pens and walked off the job.
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While schools remained open on Thursday, teachers across the Katherine region refused to educate the next generation amid ongoing EBA negotiations in a show of solidarity to reject the latest pay offer from the Department of Education.
Katherine Region president of the Australian Education Union NT, Rodney Gregg, said the Government's imposed four-year pay freeze was 'unacceptable to all teachers'.
"NT teachers are now one of the lowest paid in the country, which makes it very difficult to attract or retain teachers throughout the Territory," he said.
At the rally teachers shared the reality of living in Katherine where 'little or no rental assistance' is offered, despite 'extremely high' rental prices.
"Currently there is no incentive to attract new teachers into the region as the cost of living here is an issue," Mr Gregg said.
"The cost of rent, fuel and food continues to climb and teachers are expected to survive with a four-year pay freeze."
Mr Gregg said many of his colleagues are planning to leave at the end of the school year to return home to southern states, due to rental costs and no incentives to stay.
"This is going to be a disaster for all schools in the region as quality teachers are taking better offers from interstate education systems," the educator said.
Further industrial action is going to take place in schools across the region on September 13, with protected strike action planned from 9am to 1pm.
Currently schools are in a "Work to Rule" phase, which sees teachers arrive at school at 7.50am and leave at 3.11 pm.
Meetings are capped at once a week for 60 minutes and work outside these hours is limited, which includes lesson preparation and assessments.
A Department of Education spokesperson said during the strike day, all efforts had been made to ensure student safety and wellbeing during the strike action, with arrangements such as modified time schedules and combined classes in place.
In March, the Australian Education Union membership in the NT rejected the Commissioner for Public Employment's position for a new Enterprise Agreement which included freezing Territory teachers' pay until the end of 2024.
While some public service sectors have agreed to the deal, 87.5 per cent of teachers, firefighters, nurses and corrections officers across the NT who voted in an employee ballot in March, rejected the pay freeze.
As part of the bargaining, teachers were offered a $4,000 bonus plus annual lump sum payments of $2,000 in October for four years, all of which fully taxed.
Meanwhile, Charles Darwin University Lecturer in Education Dr Stephen Bolaji has issued a warning that the curriculum over the last decade has not addressed the Philosophy of Education, which he said was the basis of critical thought and reasoning.
"The critical thinking skills, like all other skills, need development," he said.
"When young people interact with the world around them, they don't have the critical reasoning skills to make up or evaluate a reasonable argument, so they just accept or reject ideas based on the face value of the information they are presented.
Annie Hesse
I am an award-winning media and communications professional with experience across print, digital, social and radio broadcast, as well as photography and videography. I am the NT Correspondent at Australian Community Media and I write for my hometown newspaper, the Katherine Times. I love telling people's stories, and I am passionate about giving those a voice who may otherwise remain unheard. When I am not busy putting pen to paper, I spend time in my garden, go bushwalking or travel across the Northern Territory, Australia or the world. In my spare time I write, illustrate and publish books.
I am an award-winning media and communications professional with experience across print, digital, social and radio broadcast, as well as photography and videography. I am the NT Correspondent at Australian Community Media and I write for my hometown newspaper, the Katherine Times. I love telling people's stories, and I am passionate about giving those a voice who may otherwise remain unheard. When I am not busy putting pen to paper, I spend time in my garden, go bushwalking or travel across the Northern Territory, Australia or the world. In my spare time I write, illustrate and publish books.
