Teachers make their own protest
PAUL McLAUGHLIN
Last Thursday, 48 hours after the pupil protest of 28 February, the Hastings Academy was closed for the day to some or all year-groups when teachers staged a mass walk-out as part of the industrial action taken by members of the National Education Union in England (NEU).
Other schools across Hastings and St Leonards impacted by the teachers’ strike on 2 March included Ark Alexandra Academy, St Leonards Academy, the Primary Academies of Ark Blacklands, Ark Little Ridge, Churchwood and West St Leonards, and the New Horizons School.
The teachers voted overwhelmingly for strike action in January as part of their ongoing dispute with the Government over pay, following what they called the “failure by the Secretary of State for Education in England to ensure enough money is available to pay a fully-funded increase in pay for teachers which at least matches inflation, and which begins to restore lost pay.”
Jenny Sutton, the secretary of the Hastings District of the NEU, said she regretted having to go on strike. However, she defended the action on the grounds that teachers’ pay has gone down by 24% since 2010, with teaching assistants now being paid less than the minimum wage. In addition, she said most teachers today are working in schools that are in disrepair “with many literally falling down.” As an example, she said that her own school, the Hastings Academy, has not had a properly functioning heating system since December.
The combination of low pay and a poor working environment has resulted in more and more teachers leaving the profession, Ms Sutton said. She pointed to NEU figures which revealed that one in five teachers left the profession in their first two years and one in three in their first five years. This has a direct impact, she says, on the education of children, as many of them end up being taught by people who are not subject specialists. The lack of dedicated maths teachers, for example, means that one in eight pupils are having work set and assessed by people who are not qualified in the teaching of maths. “This is a real scandal and a measure of how little society values children.”
The union are looking to ramp up the dispute with further strikes across the country throughout March aimed at putting pressure on the Government to negotiate a settlement. Last Thursday’s strikes were targeted on the London, South East and South West regions and affected a number of local schools. Dates pencilled in for future action are next Wednesday 15 March and Thursday 16 March, although it is not known at the time of going to press which schools will be affected.
Ms Sutton stressed that the NEU was willing to enter into negotiations “at any time, any place, but this situation cannot go on.”
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