A GOVERNMENT that is unwilling to negotiate has caused strikes that have shut schools across Wokingham borough.
That’s the message from the National Education Union, who said the Department of Education has been unwilling to “seriously engage with the causes of strike action”.
The union says teachers and school staff are facing real-terms pay cuts, a recruitment crisis and missing training targets.
And yesterday (Wednesday, February 1), teachers walked out seeing a number of school closures.
In Wokingham Borough, they held picket lines at their own schools before gathering in Market Place at 11am for a rally. They heard speeches from local campaigners and also Emma Cantrell, the CEO of First Days Children’s Charity.
Afterwards, they went on a march through Wokingham, heading down Peach Street, through Peach Place, into Rose Street and Broad Street before going past the council offices and back to Market Place for more speeches.
This is the first of four planned days of strikes, unless the government manages to agree a settlement deal with the union.
But teachers striking did not have high hopes.
On the picket line at Bulmershe School was Kelly, who said: “The government has failed to meet recruitment and retention targets for the past 10 years, so less people are coming into teaching which means class sizes are going up.
“Pay for teachers is at an all-time low, despite the government saying we’ve gotten you a 5% rise, the most we’ve had in 10 years, but it’s still well under inflation and it hasn’t been funded, so this is coming from already stretched school budgets, taking the money out of educational resources and trips.
“Anything else that the school has on offer will be limited in the next couple of years because of underfunding.”
She said the government’s action of taking money away from budgets was unfair on headteachers.
“They are caught in such a difficult position trying to keep their staff happy, trying to keep their workloads and stress down and then having more pressure because there’s less teachers.”
Kelly cited herself as an example, saying she was a PE teacher, but has also had to teach geography, history, computing.
“They also tried to put me in drama, and I’m not a specialist in any of those subjects,” she said. “It’s not because I don’t want to teach, I don’t want to let the children down, but I don’t know these subjects, so how can I support children?”
She thanked colleagues for turning out to the protests and to the rally.
“We’ve had a fantastic turnout, it’s been brilliant from all members and members of the public. We’ve had loads of support on the picket lines and we had a great rally in Wokingham.
“We hope that Gillian Keegan will stand up and save our schools.”
Looking at the national picture, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: “This is having consequences for learning, with disruption every day to children’s education. We can do better as a nation, for education, for our children if we invest more.”
But the government argues its funding of schools is at the highest level ever, and teachers don’t need to strike.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan said last week: “On the top of my in-tray when I got this job was a joint letter from the four major teaching unions – it asked for an extra £2 billion next year and the year after to support our schools with increased costs and to help fund this year’s pay awards.
“The unions asked, we delivered.”
Among those attending the rally in Wokingham was Bulmershe and Whitegates Labour councillor Shirley Boyt, who said: “I want to show solidarity with teachers. They’ve not been shown any respect by this government for the last 12 years – enough is enough.
“It’s not just about pay, it’s about respecting the profession.”
She added: “I hope Labour would be handling it differently, sitting at the table with teachers, ensuring they had a fair deal, and not this constant changing of educational policy rather than the scattergun approach this government has had for the last 12 years.”
