Bury teachers say they must "stand up for education" as they join strike action in a call for better pay.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) joined a rally at St Peter’s Square in Manchester this afternoon, Wednesday, after teaching and education staff across England and Wales voted in favour of industrial action.
Teachers joined university lecturers, train drivers, civil servants, bus drivers and security guards as part of the biggest strike in the UK in more than a decade.
More than 100,000 teachers across the UK are expected to take part in the walk-out in demand of a fully funded, above inflation pay rise.
The NEU is estimating that around 85 per cent of schools in England and Wales will be fully or partially closed on Wednesday.
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In Bury, the majority of schools were partially or fully closed on Wednesday.
A Bury NEU Union representative, a borough teacher, told the Bury Times that teachers are seeing a real terms pay cut due to soaring inflation.
She said: “We’re on strike today because there is a funding crisis in education that’s been going on for 12 years, because there is a recruitment and retention crisis, there’s a funding crisis.
“We need better funding in schools for our children, for support staff, for special needs for resources, because in real terms per pupil, funding has gone down since 2010.
“We are getting less per pupil now, in an inflation sense, than we were then, our wages have gone down 20 to 25 per cent because of inflation, and we don’t always get an inflation pay rise."
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The teacher added that not only are wages too low, but schools are struggling to hire and retain talented and experienced staff members, especially in STEM subjects.
The representative added: “We’ve got enough teachers out there, plenty of teachers, they’re just choosing not to teach.
“We’ve got many, many teachers who choose not to teach because of the work load, because of stagnant funding and because the job is quite stressful.
“There’s lots of reasons why a brilliant job becomes a more difficult job and they need to support us to make it the great job that it is and should be.
“They cannot recruit in maths, they can’t recruit in the STEM subjects, science, maths or languages, they cannot get the good quality teachers that our pupils deserve.
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“There is a real crisis and we’re standing up for that today and we’re losing money for that.
“We feel like we’ve really got to stand up for education, it’s reached the point where we just can’t carry on, they’ve cut to the bone, we’re on the bone."
Teaching strikes are set to continue in England in the Northern, North West and Yorkshire and The Humber regions on Tuesday, February 28.
Further national strikes in England and Wales are set to take place on Wednesday, March 15 and Thursday, March 18 unless a deal can be made.
Ahead of today, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said it was “hugely disappointing” that the NEU would proceed with strike action.
“These strikes will have a significant impact on children’s education, especially following the disruption of the past two years, and are creating huge uncertainly for parents,” she said.
“With talks ongoing on a range of issues, including around future pay, workload, behaviour and recruitment and retention, it is clear that strikes are not being used as a last resort.”
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