STRIKING teachers and school staff from across Reading and Wokingham came together on Friday to call for a better-valued education system.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) marched through Reading town centre before holding a rally in Market Place.
The strike comes following a leak that a 6.5% pay rise has been suggested by the independent School Teachers’ Review Body: Teachers want the report to be released and increase implemented.
A pay increase of 4.5% from September and a one-off payment of £1,000 was offered by the government in April. Teachers said this was rejected as just 0.5% would be funded by the government, and the remaining 4% coming from school budgets.
Dominic Coughlin, NEU executive member for the South and a secondary school teacher on the Isle if Wight, said: “If the government do come out with a pay award, they need to properly fund it.”
Matt Campbell, a cook at The Downs secondary school in Compton, attended in support of his colleagues, saying: “Teachers wages have been systematically brought down by inflation for the last 20 years and the best the government has to offer is 4.5% of a pay rise, which is simply not enough to reach the inflation of the last year and the coronavirus crisis.
“It is nothing. These are the teachers who bring up our children, they bring up us.”
Mr Campbell also went to the strike representing Socialist Appeal, a Marxist organisation with a claimed aim of ‘building a revolutionary leadership capable of leading the working class in a struggle against capitalism’.
He said: “We believe that the government and the current establishment will not support education as it has continuously proved that it will not for the last 20 years.
“We believe that the way forward is a socialist revolution.”
Marlon Emmer Green Primary School in Caversham, a Year 4 teacher and union representative, said: “The reason we are out on strike is because we are fighting for a fully funded education system.
“A pay increase we feel is necessary but it’s not the most important thing, it’s the education system that has been defunded for the last 10-15 years, it’s having a massive impact on families, it’s having a huge impact on children, parents are struggling just as much as teachers.
“I feel that unless we start investing we are going to start seeing schools closing, larger class sizes, none of this is of any benefit to children, to any community and particularly to parents as well.”
The NEU is calling for negotiations with Gillian Keegan, the education secretary and Conservative MP for Chichester.
The Department of Education says the strikes cause disruption for families: “This strike action will see the cancellation of end-of-term events and important transition days to secondary schools, impacting children and causing more disruption for parents.
“We hugely value the work of teachers. Schools are receiving significant additional funding as part of the extra £2bn of investment we are providing for both 2023/24 and 2024/25 which will take school funding its highest level in history next year, as measured by the IFS.
“As part of the normal process, the independent School Teachers’ Review Body has submitted its recommendations to the government on teacher pay for 2023/24. We will be considering the recommendations and will publish our response in the usual way.”
