Rishi Sunak’s government has a curious way of honoring public services: Wednesday, July 5, in Westminster Cathedral, the Conservative Prime Minister reads an extract from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, during a mass celebrating the 75th anniversary of the NHS, the public health service revered by the British. In the assistance crowds the whole hierarchy of hospital services, doctors, nurses and deserving nurses, some in costume, some in hats and flowered dresses. At the same time, a stone’s throw from the venerable cathedral, thousands of teachers are pounding the pavement, for their seventh day of strike since the beginning of the year, at the call of the National Education Union (NEU), the one of the main unions in the profession.
“Teachers really don’t want to strike [les vacances d’été ne débutent que fin juillet]annoys Rachel Curley, the deputy secretary general of the NEU, crossed at the start of the procession. But it’s the only way to make ourselves heard. The government is ignoring us. We only got a 5% salary increase in 2022, when inflation was above 10%. We are calling for a new increase for 2023-2024, in line with inflation [toujours à 8,7 % sur un an en mai], but the Minister of Education broke off negotiations in March. »
Education Minister Gillian Keegan said she wanted to wait for recommendations from the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), an independent body that annually proposes salary increases for teachers. “The government has received the STRB report which recommends an increase for 2023-2024 of 6.5%, but it now seems to be hesitating. If he were to not follow this recommendation, it would arouse great anger in our ranks,” warns Rachel Curley.
Water leaks and overcrowded classrooms
“Our goodwill has reached its limits”, explains Jack Roberts, professor of mathematics in a college of Liverpool, descended for the occasion in London. “You don’t come to the teaching profession to become a millionaire, but you still deserve a decent salary. Ours hasn’t been upgraded since 2010. Schools are running out of qualified math teachers, like me, they’re leaving for more lucrative professions”, deplores this thirty-year-old. The profession is experiencing a real haemorrhage: 40,000 teachers left it last year, or 9% of the workforce, and they are far from being replaced.
You have 57.71% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
