Sheila Caffrey, National Education Union Executive member (personal capacity)
With what schools, nurseries, colleges and local authorities are currently facing, solidarity and a strong fightback, united across unions, is needed now more than ever.
Education funding has dropped by £20 billion since 2010, with another round of unfunded, below-inflation, pay offers, which is going to see a total shortfall of £1.1 billion this year across nurseries, schools, sixth forms, alternative provision and special schools. For an education system already teetering on the edge of total collapse, this could finish it off.
At the same time, we’ve seen workload, pressure and mental health struggles spiralling amongst education workers, with many just voting with their feet and leaving roles and professions they love due to stress and burnout. We’ve seen the scandalous cutting of sports premium funding, and we’ve seen nearly every area of England and Wales contemplating or carrying out redundancies.
Yet in six months last year, the Department for Education spent over £200,000 on influencers trying to promote their decimation of our education system, including the latest comedy skit with Gemma Collins, social media celebrity. She took part in a shocking ‘comedy’ video with Bridget Phillipson that has angered and shocked education workers and families affected by cuts to SEND provision; the general massive funding cuts leading to rising exclusions amongst working-class children and young people, or those with Special Educational Needs; burnout for staff and parents struggling for support, and mass redundancies with some schools actually closing due to the funding gap. They simply cannot believe that that is something the government thinks it’s ok to joke about.
But this disbelief, upset and anger cannot just be expressed in social media posts. It needs to be channelled into a proper fightback to change the education system. NEU members will be doing this by building their ballot in October for strike action to ensure funding is restored; workload is cut and redundancies are halted.
But this shouldn’t be fought by one union alone. We need a united struggle with all education workers joining together, with parents, communities and pupils to fight for the education system that is needed. One that looks at the needs of pupils and then ensures the appropriate level of staffing and funding. One that ensures that there are the appropriate support services and professionals to meet all children’s and young people’s needs. One that looks at inflation and the cost-of living and ensures that education workers don’t face year-on-year pay cuts for decades. One that ensures support staff are paid properly, and not poverty pay for term-time only.
This will never just be given to us though. We need to discuss and organise across unions, learning from others’ struggles to build the strongest fightback- and this is what will happen at the National Shop Stewards Network annual conference. It will bring together class fighters and leaders to motivate others, as well as share successes and stories of hard-fought struggles.
