The bosses of two major teaching unions have warned that teachers could follow the lead of residents’ strikes next year unless Labor raises pay and fills school funding gaps.
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the National Association of Principals and Women Teachers (NASUWT) said independent Discussion of a strike at next April’s union conference is “inevitable” unless wages and working conditions improve. He believes cash-strapped schools are trapped in a “vicious cycle” because teacher salary increases must come from existing school budgets, which are already stretched thin.
Mr Wallack warned members that they “expected change” if Labor won the general election, but they were “not convinced that change is happening, either sufficiently or quickly enough”.
Meanwhile, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), warned there was a “real potential for difficulties for the profession” next year and suggested teachers may no longer tolerate the “burden of stress” imposed on them.
The latest School Workforce Census shows there will be almost 3,000 fewer state primary and nursery teachers in England by 2024, with one in five (19.4%) of primary and secondary teachers leaving the profession within two years of qualifying. Three years later, that number rose to more than a quarter (26.7%).
Teachers may no longer tolerate the “burden of pressure” placed on them (Getty/iStock)
In May, the government accepted the independent School Teachers Review Body’s (STRB) recommendation for a 4 per cent pay rise in 2025-26, which Mr Wrack described as “unhelpful” because teachers’ real earnings “have been falling over the past 15 years”.
“Changes in pensions have led to a deterioration in the pension situation. As a result, teachers are not getting the same benefits as they did 15 years ago.
“it [the STRB] “That seems to us to suggest that we may have two or three years of low pay rises, which may even be lower than the government’s measure of inflation, but certainly lower than how we assess inflation using the retail price index, and furthermore, those pay rises will not be fully funded,” he said.
He called this a “vicious cycle,” explaining: “So we get a lower raise, but if we get a slightly higher raise, it just exacerbates the crisis at the school.”
Asked whether there would be teachers’ strikes in England next year, the union boss said: “I think there is no doubt that by the conference next April teachers in our union will inevitably be talking about strikes. I think at least it will be an option that people are considering.”
The warning comes after five days of strike action by hospital doctors between December 17 and 22 as they continue to fight the government over training and pay issues.
While Mr Wrack, a former union president and chairman of the fire brigade union, admitted there had been a “relaxation in pay”, he said the government had failed to address the “pressures” faced by teachers, such as excessive workloads and a recruitment and retention crisis, which he said was caused by chronic underinvestment.
Mr Whiteman agreed it was “a real possibility” that industry would struggle next year.
He said: “I don’t know if this is a strike or other industrial action, but I think ultimately there will be a series of difficulties.
“I don’t think it’s just about pay, I think it’s going to be about the workload and the hours and the intensity and the hazards of the work.”
While he believes the government has “huge ambition” for education, he believes this ambition is not yet supported by “appropriate resources”.
NAHT secretary-general Paul Whiteman sees a “real chance” of industry struggling next year (PA Archive)
Whiteman insisted the warning of possible industrial action was “not a threat of force” but said NAHT officials were “feeling the pressure on behalf of our members”.
“They’ve been carrying this burden for too long and I don’t think they can take it anymore.”
Meanwhile, James Toop, chief executive of Teach First, called for “a cross-government priority on teacher pay” after a survey published earlier this year revealed that one in 10 teachers could leave the profession within the next two years.
While he acknowledged the Department of Education was “in a very difficult position”, he told independent Ministers need to develop a “more comprehensive strategy” to recruit teachers.
“We need to really focus on elevating teaching again. From our perspective, it’s a great job. It’s super challenging… but when you compare the starting salary to the legal and accounting professions, the starting salary for teachers is still much lower,” he said.
Aidan Sadgrove, chief executive of Brigshaw Learning Partnership, a multi-academy trust that runs seven schools in east Leeds, set out the extent of the problems facing schools and warned that the schools he oversees are facing severe funding shortfalls.
“Our funding is up by 0.5 per cent. Inflation is 2.6 per cent… a lot of unfunded costs have basically left us hundreds of thousands, if not tens of thousands of pounds short. And we only have seven schools, right? We’re a smaller trust.”
Matilda Browne, co-principal of Reach Academy Feltham and Reach Academy Hanworth Park, just outside London, warned that “pressures on the system” meant some pupils were at risk of “falling through the cracks”.
She said: “In this quite stretched system, some of our families may be interacting with schools, they may have appointments with health and social care or SEND – because the whole system is stretched and it feels really disconnected, it may mean that some families and some children are particularly vulnerable to falling through.”
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak wants strategic discussions with government (PA Archive)
Ms Brown said many schools had taken the lack of funding into their own hands, saying they “felt we couldn’t wait for the government” to provide much-needed support.
“The kids in my school are desperate for a lot of different things right now,” she told independentexplained that they address the lack of resources by collaborating with other schools, leveraging the expertise provided by different teachers.
Meanwhile, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak warned that the Labor government would face some tough decisions next year, not just from the public sector but also the private sector, as wages have been stagnant for 14 years.
he told independent: “I think the government has to recognize that there is a problem and it’s not just a public sector problem. There is a problem across the whole public and private sector. We had wages effectively stagnating for 14 years under the Conservatives. If wages had grown at normal trends in the 14 years before 2008, the average worker would have been earning £300 more a week.”
He warned: “Pay has to be part of the solution next year. I think it’s not just about pay. I think it’s about having a more strategic discussion with the unions about pay, but also about workloads, work-life balance and the deployment of new technology.
“If I have a criticism of what the government has done so far in other aspects of health and other key parts of the human service, it’s that even when investment has been made, those big strategic conversations have often not happened.”
A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “Through our plans for change we are restoring teaching to the high-value profession it deserves. Our latest proposals mean teacher pay will rise by almost 17 per cent across the council, equivalent to a significant increase in real wages over five years.”
“Despite challenging choices in public spending, mainstream school funding will increase again next year, to almost £51 billion, to help every child achieve and thrive.
“We are helping schools achieve the best value for money in areas such as energy, recruitment and banking, so every penny is invested in providing opportunities for young people.”