The union says teachers have seen a 23% real pay cut since 2010, with inflation reaching double digits last year.
Preston says the mortgage payments eat up two-thirds of her 1,800-pound-a-month ($2,230) salary, forcing her to find other ways to earn money, such as making her a live-in housekeeper. Renting a room and buying cheap, frozen meals instead of fresh produce.
“The stress it creates is absolutely incredible … Every month, it’s a struggle,” said Preston, who has worked as a teacher since 2011.
The government, which has unsuccessfully negotiated with the NEU, described its one-year, 5% pay award for teachers as the highest “in a generation” and said it was investing £4 billion in schools over the next two years. Is.
‘Leave in the bones’
The NEU – which plans to strike for a total of seven days – says one in four teachers leave the profession within three years of qualification, affecting children’s education.
“I don’t remember when we’ve had enough staff to comfortably cover a school,” said Sydney Heggington, 33, an assistant head teacher at an east London school.
“At this point in time, you have teachers going in absolutely massive numbers,” he said, noting that some of his support staff had been forced to go to food banks because of mounting bills and others to supermarkets. Just left to find work.
Heggington, who teaches music, said more than a third of experienced full-time teachers and teaching staff left his school last year. Only a fifth of those roles were filled – by trainee teachers.
Teachers say schools have run out of money for textbooks, IT upgrades and school trips for classrooms, with schools paying teachers’ salaries out of their own pockets.
“You cut down on your visits, you don’t go to the British Museum, you don’t go and see stuff,” said Steve Chalke, founder of the Oasis charity which runs more than 50 schools across the UK. “So the subjects become a little more sterile, because you’re not learning at every level.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to expand maths education in schools, but the NEU says his plan has failed to address teacher shortages, which means one in eight maths lessons are taught by an unqualified teacher. is taught.
Reports said teachers from the elite Winchester College in southern England, where Sunak attended school and was head boy, were among those on strike on Wednesday. The school declined to comment.