Why We Support the Teachers Strike

I’m a retired teacher but I have been on the picket lines today because I see this government ruining our education system. Academies have brought the profit motive into education. I have always supported nationalisation, but I never thought I would be calling for the nationalisation of our education system. Yet that is what we will have to do for large parts of it. Academy schools have been given to private industry for free: including buildings and playing fields. We want our schools back.

My son is training to be a teacher and on placement in a school in Sheffield. In a science department of thirteen, the longest serving teacher has been there for just two years. Two out of five leave teaching in their first five years of teaching. And no wonder when surveys show that teachers work on average 60 hours per week in primary schools and 56 hours per week in secondary education.

Around 500 teachers marched in Leicester to protest at the government’s education policy. A Leicestershire teacher said she already works every night until midnight because she likes to give the children she teaches feedback.

“I cannot do anymore yet our head wants us to do more. I’m considering leaving teaching even though I love the students and I love teaching them. But I am faced with the choice of either preparing my lessons for individual needs or doing paper work that anyone can do. I don’t have time to do both.”

A senior management teacher at an academy said she was worried about the future for education. On top of working 56 hours per week to fulfill her role as a teacher she had to get her head around trading services, costing everything for value for money. This adds even more hours to her working day. “I would’ve gone to work in a bank if I wanted to do that sort of thing” she said.

Students on the demo said they were there because “we plan to be teachers but this government is going back to Maggie Thatcher times.”

Some teachers felt isolated and worried about how parents would react to the strike. But parents are postal workers, health workers, firefighters, public sector workers and zero hour contract workers. If the Trades Union Congress (TUC) gave a lead and called for a 24 hour General Strike then teachers would not feel isolated and parents would be on strike with the teachers. What a day that would be!