Striking teachers have said education is in a crisis that “can’t go on any longer” as they stage a second day of action across Liverpool.
Teachers and staff from schools across the city left their classrooms for the second time this month as members of the National Education Union took part in industrial action over pay and conditions. Staff stood with placards outside their schools that read “Fund the Future” and “Striking for Students.”
Outside Abbots Lea School in Woolton, one person was seen dressed as a dinosaur holding up a sign that said “Make no bones about it school pay is prehistoric.” One teacher told the ECHO there had been no progress on the pay dispute while others said the sector was facing further issues around recruitment.
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Another said: “Recruitment is a huge issue, it’s going to lead to either huge class sizes or babysitters in classes they don’t know anything about. The people the government said they couldn’t do without, nurses, firefighters, now teachers, they’re all on strike.”
The NEU denied reports earlier this week it had refused to come to the table with the government for talks to end the strikes with its joint general secretaries issuing a statement saying they wanted to resolve the dispute “in the interests of teachers and children’s education.” Graham Copsey, assistant secretary of Liverpool NEU said teaching was facing losing more staff than it was bringing in.
He said: “We’re striking for an above inflation pay rise because for the last 12 years we’ve lost 20% of our income and are effectively working a day for free. The government have announced we’ve got 5% this year, which is 7% below the rate of inflation, 3% next year will be a real terms pay cut.
“Teaching is in crisis, we’ve got a massive recruitment and retention crisis right across the education sector, we’ve got more people leaving than are joining the profession and the government are missing their targets for teacher recruitment every year and we’re in a situation where the crisis can’t go on any longer. The way we can address that is to pay teachers properly to make teaching an attractive profession for graduates to come into.”
Mr Copsey, who was outside Gateacre School with colleagues, said while there may be some short term impact on young people during the strike action, a positive outcome for teachers would lead to long term gain. He said: “We don’t want to be striking, we want to be teaching.
“We came into teaching because we like working with children in the classroom. The reality is in the short term, while the children might be suffering by not being in school today, in the long term if we win this dispute, get a decent pay rise and solve the crisis in education, and get qualified teachers in delivering the subjects their qualified in, it will be better for the children in the future.”
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