ROSEMARY ABBOTT | Politics
GOOD MORNING MR SEYMOUR
Wellington parents have decided to take Associate Education Minister David Seymour’s advice to heart by sending their children to him for Saturday morning catch-up classes.
The decision for parents to send their kids to class on the weekend comes in response to Seymour’s suggestion that students participating in the School Strike 4 Climate should attend protests on their own time, without missing valuable school days. Yesterday 100,000 students flooded the streets of towns and cities, demanding action on climate change
While the students banded together to make their voices heard, Seymour took a different stance, emphasising the importance of education over activism.
“If they really care about the issue, they should give up their own time to protest, not their learning time,” Seymour said while the protests were taking place.
This morning Seymour was busy setting up his classroom at Wellington High School when he spoke to our reporters.
“If nothing else, this serves as a reminder that learning doesn’t solely occur within the confines of a traditional school day,” he adds, adjusting a whiteboard marker.
“And for those who don’t turn up this morning. I’ll be making sure their teachers mark them absent for Friday and today.”
Seymour then cut the interview short as he didn’t want any more valuable time wasted and began to do a headcount of students.
More to come.
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