Teachers' boycott stuns ex-navy man

Kelly Kahukiwa says he has been blacklisted from doing his teacher training at state schools because he works for a charter school. Photo / Michael Cunningham

When Chief Petty Officer Kelly Kahukiwa left the navy to teach in Northland he did not know what a charter school was.

Now, because he had a job at a Whangarei charter school, the student teacher is caught between a teachers' union and a controversial government policy that has left him blacklisted from training at state schools. It comes after the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) said its members will not work with employees of charter schools.

Mr Kahukiwa started teaching te reo Maori and music at Te Kura Hourua O Whangarei Terenga Paraoa in Whangarei at the start of the year. He sought out the school after meeting some of its students at the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Cassino in Italy last May, where he was with the Royal New Zealand Navy.

"All of us in the military, when we met those kids, we knew there was something special going on," he said.

"I just thought, oh well, whatever a charter school is it works for these kids, I want to be part of it."

Mr Kahukiwa said the first he knew of any issues was three days into his next placement, at Tikipunga High School in May. Once the school found out he was from a charter school, the board asked him not to return.

"I was just astounded," he said. "I had no idea why or what was going on. I'm just one teacher trying to do what [the PPTA members] all joined for, which is educate kids, uplift the kids and share my skills."

PPTA president Angela Roberts said, while the boycott was by definition discriminatory, it was legally and ethically sound.

"After opposing the charter school policy all the way through the legislative process, PPTA members decided that it would be consistent and principled to continue this opposition when charter schools are established," Ms Roberts said.

Charter schools should not be propped up by the goodwill and expertise of teachers in the state sector, she said. It was "highly hypocritical" of them then to seek assistance from qualified teachers in the public system.

Last month Education Minister Hekia Parata told the Northern Advocate: "I think it's utterly disgraceful that the PPTA is preventing the teacher getting a placement in a school."