Teachers' strikes: Why are Calderdale teachers are striking and schools closed tomorrow?

Tomorrow (Wednesday) marks the first of four planned days of action – three national and one regional – by the National Education Union.

As reported by the Courier, most of the borough’s secondary schools have said they will have to close to most or all of their pupils.

Some parents are still waiting to hear whether or not their children be in school.

President of the Calderdale branch of the NEU Daniel Whittall said teachers do not want to strike, but the education is in “perilous state” and “there comes a time when we have to do whatever we can to defend it – that time is now”.

He said: "Why do I say our education system is in a perilous state? First, we know that the vital support staff who do so much of the essential educational, pastoral and administrative work, are underpaid and over-stretched.

"This age-old problem has come to a crunch point in the cost of living crisis, with the Guardian and other papers reporting earlier this year that more and more are opting to leave schools to work in supermarkets, where they can earn higher pay.

“Without better pay for support staff, we will continue to lose expert experienced professionals from vital roles.

"Second, we know that school funding is at a crisis point. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies reported in January, total school spending fell by around nine per cent between 2010-2019. On current projections, our schools will only be back at the level of funding they received per pupil in 2010 by 2024 at the earliest.

"For this to be happening at the same time as we are working through the challenges wrought by the pandemic is a scandal, especially when it is accompanied by the cuts to local council funding that have left Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) with woefully inadequate resources.

"Third, we have a recruitment and retention crisis rampaging across our schools. Too many teachers are pushed out of the profession too soon, with eight per cent of teachers leaving their job in state-funded schools in 2021. Meanwhile, we’re recruiting too few teachers to replace those who leave.

"In 2021 we recruited only 59 per cent of the Government’s target for new secondary teachers and in some subjects, such as secondary Physics, the figure falls as low as 17 per cent.

"This recruitment and retention crisis has a real impact on the quality of education. For instance, 1 in 8 pupils is currently being taught Maths by a teacher who doesn’t have a Maths degree. We must do more to ensure that we can recruit and retain the best quality teachers and education workers to support our young people.

"This has to involve an improved pay offer for education workers, as well as serious efforts to tackle a spiralling workload burden.

"Instead, the Government has allowed the proportion of GDP spent on education to decline significantly since 2010, and it is now far below the OECD average.

"We see every day the pressures this creates in our schools and the challenges school leadership teams are having to confront in the face of inadequate funding.

"The NEU’s strike action must be a wake-up call to Government – pay up, and fund our children’s education properly.

"No wonder, in the face of all this, that the National Foundation for Education Research concluded in December that the Department for Education’s proposals on pay and working conditions will not be enough to address this recruitment and retention crisis.

"Education workers know this, and it helps to explain why over 38,000 new members have joined the NEU since we announced our strike action.

"The working conditions of education workers are the learning conditions of our students. The Government must increase funding for schools and ensure that all education workers – support staff most especially – are properly paid for the essential work that we do.

"NEU members know that standing up for education means standing up for the best interests of our children, and that there is no more virtuous cause.

"We hope that you’ll support us and that we can campaign together for better education for all.”