Teachers across the country will go on strike again next week to fight for better pay and working conditions.
Secondary and area school teachers nationwide voted to walk off the job for one day next Wednesday.
Acting president of PPTA Te Wehengarua Chris Abercrombie said members were overwhelmingly in favour of the strike.
"PPTA Te Wehengarua members have shown they are serious about getting a new collective agreement with salaries and conditions that will stem the worsening secondary teacher shortage throughout the motu," Abercrombie said.
Members voted in an electronic ballot this week for a one-day national strike next Wednesday 29 March.
Also, from Monday 24 April, the first day of the next school term, PPTA Te Wehengarua members will not attend meetings outside school hours, Abercrombie said.
He said in the second week of next term, they will put in place a plan to roster different year levels of students home on various days for four weeks.
In the third week of Term 2, the week beginning 8 May, rolling strikes will be held, where teachers will strike on different days in different regions starting at one end of the motu and finishing at the other.
Members will also continue to refuse to give up their scheduled planning and marking time to relieve for absent teachers or positions that are vacant.
"The results of the ballot show clearly that members believe the time for words from the Government has passed," Abercrombie said.
"Teachers would much prefer to be teaching in a settled environment this year, rather than taking extensive industrial action. However, we cannot stand by when the future of secondary education is at stake."
He said teachers need a commitment from the Government to collective agreements that will ensure students have specialist teachers for every subject.
"We need pay and conditions that will keep teachers in the classroom, attract graduates into teaching and encourage ex-teachers to return to the profession.”
Abercrombie said the PPTA and Ministry of Education have been in mediation over the last week and were meeting again on Friday. The national executive will meet tomorrow to assess progress across the union's claims, he added.
"If we think there is a genuine pathway to an agreement that members would vote for, then we would consider calling off next week's strike – it is in the Government's hands."
It comes after thousands of teachers walked off the job last Thursday after a meeting between the Government and the union failed to reach an agreement.
Ahead of last week's strike, Education Minister Jan Tinetti, a former principal, conceded working conditions and pay for teachers are "not good enough".
Tinetti told AM last Wednesday she "absolutely understands" the issues teachers are facing, adding "it's not good enough, which is why we're trying to address it".
"I've been involved in education for a long time, it has been my life's work and I absolutely appreciate what teachers do, and I'm working really hard to get the best that we can for the teachers."
Minister Tinetti wouldn't go into the specifics of the Ministry of Education's budget for paying teachers, but said "there is a lot of work that has to go on in the background".
"There's a good faith bargaining principle that is part of this, so I can't get into that side of it."
