Tomorrow teachers in some regions of England will go on
strike. This is the second in a series of proposed strikes by two teaching
unions, the NUT and the NASUWT, who between them represent over 90% of serving
teachers.
That they are striking together is significant. Historically
the two unions have been rivals and relationships between them have often been fractious.
What has caused them to put their decades of differences
aside and work together?
It can be summed up in one word: Gove.
This can’t be said often enough. Striking is a last resort.
No one wants to go on strike. Teachers lose a day’s pay, and know that they
will be accused of wanting the day off, of being lazy, of not caring about
kids, or deliberately inconveniencing parents. Striking is something you only do when you
have explored all other avenues and found them blocked off.
But Gove has united teachers in a feeling that a stand has
to be made and, since he won’t sit down and negotiate with the unions, we are
taking strike action.
So what’s it all about.
Well, where do we start?
First of all Gove has announced that he wants teachers to
work longer, pay more and get less for their pension than they agreed when they
started the job.
So what, I hear you say. People are living longer, it’s a
time of austerity and the country can’t afford to pay out for your “gold-plated”
pensions. Them’s the breaks, right?
No. For a start our pension scheme has had £43 billion more
paid into it than has ever been taken out. Let me repeat that. FORTY. THREE.
BILLION. POUNDS. more has gone into our pension pot, paid for by serving
teachers, than has ever been taken out by retired teachers. Our pension doesn’t
need any input from the taxpayer to make it affordable for years to come, it’s
fine as it is.
The increased pension contributions that Gove has demanded
we pay combined with the pay freeze over the past few years means that, by
April next year teachers will have had a 15% pay cut in real terms since 2010. That’s
a FIFTEEN PERCENT paycut. We simply can’t sustain such an attack on our wages.
And teaching is a physical job. Carrying heavy boxes of
books around a school, standing all day, crouching down next to desks to offer
help, standing on desks to pin up displays, intervening in physical
altercations – these are all a daily part of teachers lives. Keeping 30
children focused and on task for the best part of six hours a day takes
enthusiasm and energy. It’s mentally and physically demanding and while most
teachers say they will struggle to make it to 65, Gove is now insisting they go
on until 68. The cynical might say that,
of course, he knows that’s simply impossible and means that many teachers will
be forced to take early retirement, thereby losing many thousands of pounds
from a pension that they have worked hard for for years, often decades.
Workload is another issue.
While Gove would like to maintain that teachers waltz in at 9, leave at
3, and sun themselves on beaches for six weeks in the summer the reality is
very different.
Any teacher will tell you that a typical day starts nearer
to seven, doesn’t finish until well after 6, that breaks during the day are non-existent
and that weekends and holidays are taken up with marking and planning. And that’s
for more experienced teachers. These days tales of newly qualified teachers
being at school until nine or ten at night and then going in again on the
weekend are not uncommon. Which is why there is such a high burnout rate in teaching.
And Gove wants us to do more. While most teachers need the holidays
to keep on top of their workload, remind their family and friends what they
look like, and physically and mentally recuperate, Gove says we should have
shorter holidays and stay in school for longer so that we can have additional
meetings and supervise after-school sessions.
But all of this, the pay cut, the stolen pension, the
increased workload, he might have got away with all of this were it not for his
devastating onslaught on education.
Amongst other things he’s
·
Removed the Educational Maintenance allowance
that allowed poorer students to stay on into further education
·
Done nothing to reduce the trebling of tuition
fees
·
Narrowed the curriculum into something one
academic has called neo-Victorian
·
Removed the need for schools to employ qualified
teachers
·
Stopped the schools modernisation programme and
diverted the money into free schools often in places where there is no need
·
Destroyed university based initial teacher
training so they we are now facing a significant shortage of teachers in key
subjects
·
Created a schools places crisis
·
Refused to listen to the advice of the
profession
·
Refused to implement policies based on evidence
and research
·
Constantly denigrated teachers
Teachers have had enough. They’ve had enough of the attacks
on their pay, on their pensions and their working conditions. But most of all
they’ve had enough of the attacks on education.
It’s time to stand up for education. It’s time to stand up
for teachers.
Please support the strikes.
