Teachers are on strike across New Zealand, and government ministers are blundering through interviews, repeatedly getting the basics of teaching wrong. It’s tone-deaf and dangerously close to farce.
This is a situation straight out of Yes, Minister’s episode The Compassionate Society. In it, Jim Hacker proudly defends a brand-new hospital fully staffed with doctors and nurses. But here’s the rub, it has been without a single patient since its opening 15 months ago while also having 500 administrative personnel on its staff.
For the rest of the episode the government and its bureaucracy twist themselves in knots defending the absurd, while the very people who actually deliver care are ignored.
That’s what’s happening here. Teachers are telling the government exactly what’s broken; under-resourcing, stressed workloads, and pay that doesn’t match the job. Instead of listening, ministers are performing a bad Jim Hacker impression and talking about “efficiency”, stating dodgy facts about salaries and leave, and all while missing the whole point of the profession. Hint, it’s educating children!
The public isn’t stupid. They can see when leaders don’t understand the work being done. And when you don’t respect the details, you don’t win the argument.
By fumbling the basics, National gave NZEI Te Riu Roa and PPTA Te Wehengarua all the ammunition they need to reframe the whole debate as government ignorance.
PR Pro Tip: Don’t bluff expertise you don’t have. When people know more than you (and teachers know more about classrooms than cabinet ministers), the only winning strategy is to understand the facts, listen to your opposition AND THEN start talking.
Allan, I know you’re proud of me for using Yes, Minister!