Keri Russell will be among the more than 120,000 school staff striking (Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire/Keri Rusell)
A teacher tired of being ‘taken advantage of’ has said she’s striking tomorrow as part of the biggest strike among educators in years.
Keri Russell, 48, has taught biology at a secondary school for four years but has seen years-long issues of pay deepened by Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis.
She will soon be one of more than 120,000 other teachers and staff to strike after negotiations between unions and government officials over salaries failed.
Even though the mother-of-five ‘can’t really afford to strike’, Keri says the reasons to do so are just too many.
‘I do the job because I absolutely love teaching – I love the moment when the lightbulb clicks for a student, and when they share their aspirations for the future,’ Keri, from Braintree, Essex, said.
‘But for most teachers, if you totted up the amount hours they do, it probably equates to less than minimum wage.’
Teachers in England and Wales will strike tomorrow in the first of seven days of industrial action by members of the National Education Union (NEU), the largest teaching union in the UK.
Keri Russell, 48, feels the government is ‘taking advantage of teachers’ (Picture: Keri Russell / SWNS)
Teachers up and down the UK have voted to walk out over meagre pay, swelling workloads and declining workplace conditions (Picture: PA)
The rolling job action will see more than 23,400 schools shuttered, though each will only be impacted by a maximum of four days.
NEU members are walking to secure an above-inflation pay increase funded by the government rather than tearing it from already threadbare school budgets used for textbooks, stationary and IT equipment.
The union estimates teachers have suffered a 23% real-term pay cut since 2010 as stubbornly high inflation levels eat into pay packets.
Teacher’s pay continued to shrink even during the Covid-19 pandemic, Keri added, where days of remote learning and shaky reopenings left staff drained.
Educators have described the toll they faced trying to provide normal schooling for students during an anything-but-normal time – often leading to doubling workloads.
Keri said she often worked ’19 or 20-hour days’ during the pandemic.
‘I have young children so had to look after them in the day, and record my lessons at night. If I had five classes the next day – that’s five hours of recording to do at night,’ she said.
The job action will impact tens of thousands of schools (Picture: PA)
‘Then I had to be available in the day for the class at the other end of the computer as well.
‘During lockdown, I probably worked the hardest I ever have in my life.’
These long working hours have stretched beyond Covid, with Kerri finding herself having to get her marking and planning done for the next day at home.
She said: ‘I know some teachers who say they make a habit that they don’t do work at home, but I don’t see how I could do my job without finishing work at home.’
But it’s not only test papers Kerri takes home with her – it’s the mental toll of being responsible for young people, too.
Saying it’s ‘not humanly possible’ to stop worrying, she said: ‘You might have a child come to you with an issue. You’ve reported it and done everything you can, but you’re sat at home still worrying about it.’
Many pandemic-era challenges came on top of those teachers already knew – increasing workloads, staff shortages and real-term pay cuts, unions say.
Teachers were awarded an average pay rise of about 5% by the government – but this has been eroded by months of double-digit inflation.
Scottish teachers have been striking for weeks (Picture: PA)
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan’s talks with union bosses failed (Picture: PA)
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, senior teachers have seen their pay plummet by £6,600 since 2010.
This is among the reasons why one in four teachers leave within three years of being qualified, which the NEU says is impacting children’s education.
‘Teachers are here because we care, and we are being wholeheartedly taken advantage of by the government,’ Keri added.
‘I went into teaching thinking I probably won’t earn loads of money, but I did it because I wanted to.
‘But when it feels like that isn’t being appreciated, it’s a really big deal. It does have an impact.
‘I don’t want to strike, but we need to have our voices heard, and for teachers to be recognised as the professionals they are.’
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Teachers will be joined by railway staff, civil servants and university lecturers, among others, across seven trade unions on what will be the biggest day of strikes in more than a decade.
In Scotland, teachers are striking in two local authorities a day until 6 February, with the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) subsequently planning further strikes.
While most teachers will strike for half a day on 21 February in Northern Ireland.
‘The old phrase is ‘”if you can’t do, teach” – and I think the government still see it that way,’ Keri added.
‘We don’t just teach though, sometimes I’m there as a sounding board, sometimes I’m a social worker. Sometimes I’m the one who brings in pens and pencils because my students don’t have them – because I care.
‘The government have wholeheartedly taken advantage of that.’
She added: ‘We’re seeing wages cut in real time due to inflation.
‘When teachers like me could be working in higher education or labs, you can see why there’s a shortage of teachers in subjects like science and maths.
‘You can understand why teachers are leaving.’
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‘During lockdown, I probably worked the hardest I ever have in my life.’
