Two frustrated teachers say they and their colleagues are 'burnt out' and 'fed up' as they begin a fresh day of strike action. Teachers across Greater Manchester are walking out of work today - for the fifth day of strike action in a long-running dispute.
The National Education Union (NEU) and government are in a stalemate in a row about pay. Today's industrial action follows four days of walk-outs.
The Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, has called the move 'extremely disappointing'. However, teachers have told the Manchester Evening News that the argument is not actually about the amount of pay - rather how it will be funded.
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The current deal on the table would see teachers net a one-off payment of £1,000 this year and an average pay rise of 4.5pc in 2023 to 2024. However, schools are expected to fund 4pc of the rise from their own budgets, with the government providing the additional 0.5pc.
The NEU meanwhile believes the offer is still too low. One of the schools where picket lines were formed today was Hyde High School, in Hyde, Tameside. And two of those who stood holding placards and waving flags said the issues go much deeper.
Beth Farrell, 28, English and Drama teacher and also NEU rep at the school, said: "I trained as a teacher two years ago so I'm in my second year as an early career teacher (ECT) and already I feel the effects of burnout.
"In that time I can already see the effect that government cuts to education are having on our young people. I became a teacher because I truly wanted to help young people and I just don't feel that I can with the resources I'm being given.
"Teachers need to be paid more. It needs to be understood we have an incredibly high workload. The idea that we leave at 3pm is shocking and laughable. Most teachers will be working six-day weeks and most teachers work until 5 or 6pm in school after getting here at half 7 ish.
"We're just overworked, there aren't enough of us. Every single one of my classes are between 25 and 32 children and they are challenging children who will have lots of different needs.
"I don't have a teaching assistant (TA) for a class full of special educational needs (SEN), because we don't have enough resources.
"We literally, in my department, can't afford black pens at the moment. And the government aren't taking any notice. The offer they gave us, of 4.5 percent, which wasn't even fully funded, was disgusting. It would have led to staff cuts from school.
"We can't afford black pens as it is, so we wouldn't have been able to pay teachers that much more out of a school budget. So that's why I'm on strike."
Beth and her colleagues will be going into school to teach Year 11 pupils who have exams in three weeks' time. "I care about those kids" she said.
"I would love to be in school all day, teaching all the children that I teach, but we have had to prioritise those Year 11s, and that's because we care about those children and want them to do well. None of us want to be here. It's a last resort but it just feels like we have no other choice."
Howard Machin, 55, from Hyde, a general science and physics teacher at the school, said: "I have been teaching 32 years and this round of strike action is only the third occasion where teachers have been on strike.
"We're not a militant bunch, we're not activists, we are not trying to throw down the government, we just want fair pay and we want a fair deal for the kids that we teach."
Howard said pay stagnation had also led to a recruitment problem, particularly for his subject. "The latest figures out last month showed that for trainee teachers coming through, physics is only 21 percent. So that's only one-fifth of the required teachers we need, to teach physics.
"So where do the physics teachers come from. If we lose a physics teacher, how do we recruit a new one? We can put adverts in, but what are we gonna get?
"So pay is important. I'm on less money than I was 10 years ago when I was teaching, albeit in a slightly different role, but I've not had a significant pay rise in all that time. But it's not just that. It's who's going to teach physics. If I retire in two years' time, where are they going to get another physics teacher to replace me? It's really concerning.
"One of my Year 11 pupils asked me why was I striking, I said 'Have you got a sibling?' And she said 'yeah I've got a younger sister who's coming in September.' And I said 'do you know who's going to be teaching her science, because if three science teachers go from here we're never going to get three more science teachers to come back in.'
"And she was looking shocked and didn't realise that the recruitment problem is one of the biggest issues that's facing us. Maths and computing are the same. It's not an attractive job, not anymore. It used to be, but it just isn't at the moment.
Asked what the morale was among his colleagues, he said: "We're fed up. We're fed up of being ignored really. Because there are many issues that truly have come through from Covid, and we don't feel we're really being thought of.
"We were offered a pay rise but the school had to find four percent of that 4.5pc pay rise. The government said it was fully funded. Completely not fully funded. So how does the school find, for 80 or 90 staff, that four percent out of its budget that its already set?
"Maybe make someone redundant or remove some of the classroom support so that makes it even worse for parents. These are the issues that mean we're out waving our flags today and getting the support from people beeping us as they're going past."
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