TEACHERS’ strikes take place today amid a crisis, not just for teacher pay, but for our education system. 

The government has once again missed targets for teacher recruitment in secondary schools this year, recruiting only 59 per cent of the teachers needed. 

Daniel Kebede

Unlike previous years, it has also missed the target for primary teachers, in figures that head teachers’ organisations have described as “nothing short of catastrophic.”

This means that children are increasingly being taught by non-subject specialists in subjects like maths and physics and more and more schools have whole classes where they have been unable to recruit a teacher at all. 

It is not acceptable that our children’s education suffers because the government is unwilling or unable to do its job.

At the same time 90 per cent of English schools face cuts in 2023, meaning fewer resources in the classroom and cuts to teaching assistants, support roles and services like breakfast clubs. 

Schools are being expected to cope with an educational crisis and increasing levels of childhood poverty without the resources to do so. 

This is in spite of the successes of the school cuts campaign which forced another £2 billion out of the government in the Autumn Statement.

If it wasn’t for those parents, head teachers and school staff who stood up and said no, things would be even worse for our children and our communities.

That is why our members have to stand up today and be counted. We know that this government won’t listen until it is forced to. 

With 300,000 teacher members, and support staff in Wales, voting overwhelmingly to take strike action, that is exactly what we will do.

Our dispute is over pay, because the race to the bottom on terms and conditions, which does so much damage to our children’s education, cannot be allowed to continue. 

However, it is also part of a wider campaign for the kind of education system we want to see. Our schools and colleges need to be better funded, and our staff paid properly — including support and supply staff — but they also need to be given greater professional control over what happens in the classroom.

For too long, we have faced diktats from government on curriculum, on pedagogy, with professional educators pushed into teaching in ways that go against their professional judgement, by politicians with no educational expertise at all. 

Education has become a political football, with the latest trends enforced by ministerial decree, however flimsy the research evidence.

All of this is backed up by a broken inspection system, which the majority of teachers and senior leaders agree plays no positive role in developing education.

It is time for a bold vision for the kind of education system our young people deserve, where the needs of the child come before the demands of the market — where educational success, not dodgy data and rogue algorithms, is valued. 

It is time to take back control of our schools and our education system. When teachers take to the streets today, they will be striking for better pay and increased funding. 

They will also be campaigning for the future of our education system.

Daniel Kebede is past president and national officer of the National Education Union.