Kaitangata School principal Anneta Payne, 65, is retiring after 40 years of teaching because she simply does not have the energy to deal with the rampant changes from the government.
"I haven’t got the energy to lead a staff through all of this change any more. I’m just worn out," she said.
Even though she was at retirement age, she could have given many more years had it not been for the changes, she said.
She did not believe in the changes coming into the education system and did not want to lead staff or teach children within it.
In 40 years of teaching, she had not seen change occur at such a rapid rate.
She was sad to be leaving because she loved the profession and felt she had more to give, but she was putting her hands up and saying "I can’t handle any more".
Mrs Payne said she was not the only one feeling that way and many other teachers were leaving for the same reasons.
"There’s a lot of principals that are saying, ‘Look, I just can’t even handle looking at the new curriculum at the moment’."
As the South Otago Principals Association chairwoman, she sent an open letter to Education Minister Erica Stanford pleading for the implementation of the new English and mathematics curriculums to be deferred from the start of next year to term 3.
She said educators were overwhelmed with the amount of change that was happening.
Every week, there was a new letter seeking to make changes from either Mrs Stanford, Associate Education Minister David Seymour or someone at the Ministry of Education.
"It’s just constant change and people are being worn down," she said.
The curriculum changes were "ridiculous".
The new curriculum did not leave any room for the "joy of learning".
It was all surface-level regurgitation of knowledge, Mrs Payne said.
The amount of content in the curriculum left no room for other activities at school like camps, sports tournaments and even assemblies.
Teachers had tried to act in good faith and work with the government, but they had been given three new curriculums in the past two years.
Mrs Payne was worried education had become a political football, and the changes did not keep in mind those at the "coalface of education".
The letter to Mrs Stanford was signed off by most of the primary schools in South Otago.
