21,000 secondary school teachers to strike this week
Monday, 13 October 2025
Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) is set to start striking on Tuesday after negotiations with Government stall.
in response to a lack of progress in their collective agreement negotiations with the Government.
The partial strikes start Tuesday - in what the PPTA call “rostering home” action, which means that teachers will refuse to teach certain year levels on certain days.
Around 21,000 secondary school teachers will be involved, refusing to teach certain class levels from Year 7 to 13 this week before taking part in a full day national strike on October 23.
Here is who will be impacted and on what days this week.
Years 7 and 9 will not be taught on Tuesday.
Years 8 and 10 will not be taught on Wednesday.
Years 11 and 12 will not be taught on Thursday.
Year 13 won’t be taught on Friday.
Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua President said the national executive met on Friday night to consider the results of a vote.
“Ten minutes before we were due to meet, the Government presented us with another offer for settlement of the Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement– with a condition it would lapse if strike action was notified,” said Abercrombie.
He said the offer was worse than the previous offer “in several ways,” and said the manner of presenting the offer was “rushed and poorly thought out on the Government’s part.”
“However, Executive did them the courtesy of considering it,” he said.
Abercrombie said the pay offer on hand was still below current and projected rates of inflation, and failed to address the issues “that are at the heart” of PPTA’s claims.
The strike action this week will affect 300,000 secondary students, said Hautū of the Education Workforce for the Ministry of Education, Anna Welanyk.
“Strike action also impacts parents and caregivers, who may need to change their arrangements to accommodate striking teaching staff,” Welanyk said.
Teachers in the union will engage in a nation-wide one day strike on Thursday October 23.
They’ll put a ban on extracurricular activity on October 29, and have another nation wide strike from 1.15pm to 3.15pm on November 5.