A leading teaching union in Northern Ireland has claimed that some teachers are double jobbing to make ends meet.
It comes as most Northern Ireland teachers are set to go on strike for the first time in five years following the half-term break in a dispute over pay.
The half-day strike action by four main teaching unions here - the UTU, INTO, NASUWT and NEU - will take place next week.
Read more: NI teachers to stage half-day walk out next month in dispute over pay
Teachers will withdraw their labour from schools for 12 hours on Tuesday, February 21, before returning to their normal afternoon duties over the failure to offer "a fair and decent" pay award.
Many schools are expected to close until midday on the day as most teachers in Northern Ireland are represented by the three unions.
School leaders recently wrote to the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris expressing "significant concerns about the impact of the current crisis in education funding".
The Education Authority (EA) has also said it's not possible to deliver a £110 million saving plan proposed by Mr Heaton-Harris before the end of March.
Ahead of the action, some teachers who are members of the Ulster Teachers’ Union (UTU) say they have been forced to take on extra work just to make ends meet.
One of them is Co Antrim teacher Leigh McKay, who is 53 and has 32 years’ experience in her profession.
“In order to make ends meet this year I had to undertake two extra roles in my school – head of year and school information officer,” said Leigh from Ballygally.
“I’ve since calculated that for all that extra work and responsibility, I take home £6.60 extra a day. I never thought I’d be in this situation. We’re not being treated like professionals. It’s like the government are just saying: ‘you don’t matter!’”
Lisburn principal Gillian Dunlop, head of Largymore Primary School, added: “A third of young teachers coming through recently haven’t stayed in the profession because of the pay, which potentially impacts the quality of teaching for our children.
“That and the difficulty in retaining staff because of the sheer workload is at the heart of why we feel we finally have no option other than to strike because the people who will suffer most unless this is addressed are the children.
“Our pupils are at the very heart of why we are doing this because we want to attract the very best graduates to the profession who deserve to have the level of their professionalism rewarded.
“Teachers are not paid for school holidays so when you take a salary of around £30,000 and divide it by the contracted number of working days, it shows a teacher earning roughly £150 a day. Is that all we’re worth?
“Why would a graduate, saddled with thousands of pounds of student debt, take a job in teaching with all the responsibility and workload when they could either go into another graduate level job for substantially better pay or take a job in a warehouse on similar pay?”
Ms Dunlop also highlighted the fact that the Education Authority (EA) has recently advertised for a budgetary control officer with a salary up to over £61,000, yet at the same time freezing recruitment of school crossing patrol officers.
David Thompson, principal of Dungannon Primary, is equally concerned. He said: “This could potentially endanger our children’s lives. The cuts we’re now being asked to make are as basic as that.
“This is an accident waiting to happen as thousands of children across Northern Ireland cross some very busy roads to get to school. It simply cannot be allowed to happen.
“The action teachers have been forced to take has, at its heart, the children. Our education system has never been in a poorer state. Enough is enough. The industrial action is to highlight not only the profession’s pay plight but equally the abject failure to resource the sector.”
In response, an EA spokesperson said: “This is a challenging time for schools and we, alongside other members of Management Side, continue to support a fair pay increase for teachers.
“Management Side and Teachers’ Side of the Teachers’ Negotiating Committee (TNC) have been actively engaging for many months on a teachers’ pay settlement for 2021/22 and 2022/23.
“However, negotiations are currently framed within the growing and unprecedented financial pressures facing the education sector which continue to adversely impact schools, staff and ultimately children and young people.
“Management Side remains committed to continuing meaningful, active engagement with Trade Union colleagues to reach a resolution and ensure our teachers are fairly remunerated.”
Meanwhile, it was confirmed on Thursday that the Unite union, representing healthcare staff in Northern Ireland, has moved a planned strike to coincide with next week's industrial action by teachers.
Strike action was scheduled to take place on Thursday and Friday, as well as February 23 and 24 and March 16 but members will now walk out on Tuesday, the same day as teachers. Ambulance staff will be among those taking part in the strike.
Kevin McAdam from Unite said the move demonstrates that there are two important things in life, health and education.
He said: "Our aim is to disrupt the administration of the service, not to disrupt the patients but obviously it will impact to some extent. If we don't take a stand we wont have a health service. This is the only way we can get our message through to government regionally and nationally."
Some staff at Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University will also be on strike on Tuesday as part of 18 planned days of industrial action in a dispute over pay.
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