Teachers have warned how education is on the line after thousands joined pickets on a day of strike action. More than 12,000 members of the National Education Union (NEU) were expected to walk out in Greater Manchester today (February 1).
Hundreds of classrooms closed their doors to pupils, with many schools asking certain year groups to stay at home and some closing entirely. Picket lines formed on the streets outside, while the NEU estimated 85% of schools in England and Wales were affected by today's industrial action.
While the dispute revolves around pay, striking teachers told the Manchester Evening News it was about something even more significant - the quality of children's education. Out on the picket line outside Whalley Range High School this morning, geography teacher Ben Lear said: "Kids are not getting the best education.
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"This is a strike for the community, it's not just for us." Mr Lear described the situation schools were facing following the latest 5% pay rise for teachers, which had to be covered by school budgets.
"They have robbed Peter to pay Paul," he said. "Some schools are having to cut teaching assistants and specialist support staff to make up the 5% pay rise. They are not replacing computers that are broken and there are less school trips.
"People love our school but overall, it's a massive problem in the profession. As an industry, we are struggling to hire teaching assistant because people can get better paid jobs elsewhere."
The NEU says teachers have faced real-terms pay cuts for more than a decade, while the 5% offer falls well below inflation. It is campaigning for a fully-funded, above inflation pay increase.
Mr Lear said: "Teachers' pay has been worsening. We have some of the worst pay and conditions in the whole of Europe. It's an absolute disgrace."
"The government don't value us," he added. "They are taking us for granted. People don't come into teaching to be rich, it's a passion and a calling. It's an absolute disgrace when teachers feel they need to go on strike."
Teachers on the Whalley Range picket line were beeped by passers-by in support of the strike, while well-wishers provided coffee and snacks. It was a familiar scene outside other schools in Greater Manchester.
Teachers at Cedar Mount Academy, in Gorton, said they were taking industrial action as they feared for the state of the profession. Some said they had seen colleagues quit due to being ‘overworked’.
Rosie Read, a newly qualified teacher, said her pay was so low that her parents were having to subsidise her living expenses. Her colleague Ana, who did not provide her surname, added: "So many of us are quitting because we are overworked.
"The rest of us are having to pick up what is left, which leads to more of us being overworked and quitting. I have had to move house because everything is so expensive."
The NEU has members in around 1,200 schools across Greater Manchester, not just secondary schools. Outside the region's primary schools, the picket lines may have been smaller, but the passion and anger teachers felt was just as strong.
Sarah, a teacher at Plymouth Grove Primary School, hit out at the 'state our country is in'. She said: "The tiny 5% increase - that we were overdue ages ago - when we received it it was taken out of the school's budget, so we started our year in deficit.
"The government didn't support schools at all with that, so we're really struggling financially. We're unable to retain teachers, the workload is absolutely huge because of the fact we are down staff, we can't afford to keep the staff that we've got.
"Resources for children aren't right, the support for special needs children isn't there - it's just a dire situation and I've noticed a huge change over the last 10 years of teaching. We don't want to do this, we want to be in the classroom teaching children, but if we don't strike then we're not going to get the message across."
The NEU was one of seven unions taking industrial action, with around 500,000 workers walking out. Academics and university staff were among those walking out, in the first day of strike action from the University and College Union (UCU).
Adam Davis, a lecturer in particle physics at the University of Manchester, was among those on a picket line outside Whitworth Hall on Oxford Road. Heartbreakingly, he said he knew of two academics who had taken their own lives due to the 'conditions' in the sector.
“I can’t stand for it anymore,” he said. "I'm tired of losing people. I’m overworked and there are many who have it way worse than I do. None of this is being taken seriously."
Many of the workers on strike today poured into Manchester city centre for a demonstration in support of the right to strike this afternoon. It comes as the government looks to change strike laws to establish minimum service levels in some sectors, which could remove unfair dismissal protection for workers who strike when asked not to.
A host of speakers led the rally at St Peter's Square before the demonstration marched through the city centre - with teachers joining other striking workers such as civil servants, rail and bus workers. Adam Playle, a history teacher at Sale High School, said he had chosen ‘not to teach history but to make it’ today.
"The Tories are absolutely blasting the education system," he said. “We’re missing a day of teaching our students for our students."
Mr Playle, who has been teaching since 2018, said he had considered leaving the profession and was feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis. "My partner is disabled so I'm the only breadwinner," he added. "Despite the passion I have for the job, I've asked myself multiple times why I'm still doing this."
Kate Lewis, a Labour councillor and teacher of more than 30 years in Salford, was another taking to the streets. She said she had experienced a real terms pay cut in recent years, and feared the growing problem of recruitment and retention in the sector.
“Enough is enough," she said. "I'm an art teacher and, for the first time I can remember, there is a shortage of us. Schools are struggling to get the staff they need and children are suffering because they are being taught by non-specialists or supply teachers."
Other teachers spoke of the toll funding issues were taking on their pupils. Amy, a teacher at a secondary school in south Manchester, said: "We have less money to spend on kids each year.
"If you want to take kids on a trip, you can't do that anymore. Loads of our kids are on free school meals and come in hungry. They can't concentrate.
"We're at breaking point. Our school has buckets in the corridors catching water. It's not safe, we don't have the resources for kids and our hours are going up."
Jamie, a science teacher at Great Academy in Ashton-under-Lyne, gave a stark warning over the number of people left in the profession. "We're running out of teachers," he explained.
"People keep leaving and it's left the inexperienced people to pick up the mess. If it goes on like this, we will not have a very good education system."
The government insists above inflation pay rises for teachers are not affordable, and risk worsening inflation at a difficult time for the country. Education secretary Gillian Keegan called the industrial action taken by the NEU today 'deeply disappointing'.
She said: “I am very grateful to head teachers for all their work to keep our schools open and to minimise the impact of today’s strike action. One school closure is too many and it remains deeply disappointing that the NEU proceeded with this disruptive action.
"But many teachers, head teachers and support staff have shown that children’s education and wellbeing must always come first. Conversations with unions are ongoing and I will be continuing discussions around pay, workload, recruitment and retention, and more.”
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