New Zealand's primacy school teachers have gone on mass strike for the first time in 24 years, just weeks after the country's nurses took the streets.
Nearly 30,000 educators marched in protest on Wednesday, after hitting in a wall in their pay negotiations with the government.
The strike affected 400,000 children from about 1500 schools who needed to be looked after during the day.
Teacher's union, the New Zealand Educational Institute, says wage rises haven't kept up the cost of living for years and its members have also been rallying for better conditions and incentives to address issues with low training numbers, burnout and turnover.
The union has asked for a 16 per cent pay rise for teachers over two years, but says it was offered only about 2.6 per cent a year for three.
A crowd of about 4000 teachers marched through central Wellington and descended on the lawn at parliament on Wednesday morning. Several speakers told the rally about working 12-hour days for effectively decreasing wages.
Teacher Matt Boucher said they had reached the point of outrage.
Not originally expected to speak, NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she had been drawn down from her office by the crowd.
"As I watched you coming onto the forecourt, I didn't get a sense of them and us. I just got a sense of us .... There's very few signs out there I don't agree with," she told the cheering picketers.
"Unfortunately sometimes radical change takes time. So I'm here today to ask you to work with us as we try to move forward ... We know there's a lot to do."
Australian Associated Press