Teachers and staff from the National Education Union are striking again today in protest of wages and to ensure pay rises aren’t taken away from school budgets.
The government has previously attempted to negotiate an offer of a £1,000 one-off payment and a 4.3% rise in pay.
A big cause for the strike comes from concerns that the government’s offers aren’t in line with the current inflation rates.
Kirsty Anna Sinclair, who is now a one-to-one mentor for burnout recovery after quitting teaching in 2020, said: “I think it’s a choice that teachers and their unions don’t make lightly; many of my former colleagues would not have been in favour of striking under any circumstance.
“There’re clear signs of strain in the profession – the government have missed their recruitment targets for several years running, OFSTED has been criticised in the news and there are many social media groups put in place to support burnt out teachers.”
She added: “As a solo provider for my family, I struggled to live on my teaching wage after 14 years in the profession.”
In data from gov.uk, the average salary of teachers in 2021 stood at £42,385 which was a 1.3% increase since 2020.
The number of teachers that left the profession in 2021 was 36,262 – an increase of 4,000 in comparison the previous year.
Ms Sinclair, said: “Experienced managers have left in great numbers in the past few years, so there are inexperienced people trying to make decisions in schools, and staff wellbeing is almost entirely overlooked.
“I funded many of the resourced for my teaching job personally and staff are often made to feel guilty for basic resourcing requests.
“You want to make a profession fail? Give it difficult and sometimes inappropriate targets, underfund it, then judge it for failing.”
Unions involved in the strikes have so far rejected all of the government’s offers, saying that schools would still remain underfunded.
