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Teacher-strike-July-5-main_article_image.jpg
PA
UK News

Education strike "fairly ineffective", says Christian teacher

by Aaron James

The teacher, who did not want to be named, was speaking as thousands of teachers from the National Union of teachers (NUT) walked out over what they say is decreasing spending on education, increasing teacher workloads and insufficient pay.

The NUT's highlighting Institute of Fiscal Studies figures which say spending per pupil is expected to fall by about 8% in real terms by 2020.

There has also been significant unrest among some teachers for a number of years over the push towards academisation, which takes schools out of local authority control and, some argue, is a step towards the privatisation of education.

Thousands of children and young people across the UK have had lessons disrupted as a result of the one-day strike.

There are two unions which represent rank-and-file teachers: the NUT and NASUWT.

NASUWT members were not balloted and have not taken part in Tuesday's industrial action.

Among NUT members, 24.5% voted in the ballot on whether to strike. Of those 24.5% who voted, 91.7% voted in favour of striking.

REX/WestEnd61

The Education Secretary has called the strike "unnecessary" and "harmful", and questioned its legitimacy as only one in four members took part in the decision.

Speaking anonymously to Premier, the Christian teacher said: "I don't think it's a particularly effective form of strike, because unless you get the strikes in unison it's actually fairly ineffective.

"I asked one of the NUT members within my school: 'why are you going on strike?' and he replied 'I don't know, something to do with budgets'.

"For me that's quite indicative that there's not a strong, coherent reason if members of the NUT don't know why they're striking.

"It's my prayer that they [young people] are the priority and we invest so much into them, but having said that, not at the expense of the health and wellbeing of teachers.

"There are some teachers that are being pushed beyond their limits, but also in terms of funding from the government it's clear that the education of children is not in their economic priority and that needs to be looked at."

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