Derry teachers to take part in strike this week

Derry teachers will join teachers from across the North in a half day strike involving all five Unions tomorrow.

Five dates of strike action have been planned in response to a long-running dispute over pay.

Wednesday's half day strike will take aim at a number of issues including a three year stagnation in pay.

English teacher at St Cecilia's college in Derry, Tanya Wakeley, has worked in the profession for 29 years.

The NEU Union Rep says in many ways this is the most challenging time in the profession.

“I think, crucially, this is the most taxing, hard working, exacerbating time for all teachers, all teachers in the teaching profession right across Northern Ireland,” she said.

“With pay cuts adding on to our workload and a reduction in teachers, it's just adding to the crisis in education at the minute.”

She said teachers are expected to take on large amounts of unpaid work.

“People aren't aware that teachers have to do a lot of administrative work for the examination bodies and we don't get paid for that. We have to do stuff like setting coursework, marking the coursework, collating the data, and then uploading all of the results.

“This takes an exorbitant amount of time and energy from. It's sapping teachers. They don't have to do that in Scotland, we have to do it in Northern Ireland.

“No other profession would do that. They wouldn't work for free yet we're expected to. We go above and beyond for our pupils and we don't take strike lightly.

“We do not want to go on strike. We've been forced to go on strike because of the constant demoralisation of our profession via poor pay. We demand pay parity.”

Teachers are represented by the Northern Ireland Teachers Council (NITC) which includes five unions - the NASUWT, Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), Ulster Teachers' Union (UTU), National Education Union (NEU) and NAHT.

The pay dispute has been ongoing for a year and a half.

In February 2022, unions rejected a pay offer from employers for the years 2021-2023, describing it as "inadequate".

According to the unions, employers claimed the deal was a 3.2% increase over two years but the unions said the deal consisted of a restructure of pay grades which cost less than an equivalent pay offer of 1% each year.

Tanya said schools right across the board are losing staff due to a crisis in education.

“Just thinking in terms of St Cecilia's, that's one school out of the secondary schools in Derry, we have lost around 15 staff in five years. That's experienced and talented teachers because the pressure on the stress is just too much. Some retired early, some retired due to ill health.

“Say, 20 years ago, teachers would have been staying much longer in the profession. The workload, the costs, the examination pressure, all those things have added to our workload and are detrimental to our mental health.”

Recruiting new teachers is also becoming more difficult, with you people put off by the well publicised issues faced in the profession.

“Retention is hard at the minute, but so too is the other end of the spectrum, which is recruitment of new, vibrant and dynamic young teachers coming into the profession.

“They're looking at the workload, they're looking at the burnout and they are taking their experience, their skill base and their brain power elsewhere.

“They're using their heads. Teachers normally use their hearts when they come into this profession.

“They come into it for the love of children and the love of being an educator. But young people are now thinking 'do I really want to go there?'

“I think the main issue as well for young teachers is the starting salary. We have the poorest starting salary out of all our young graduates.”

“Young people are thinking clever now. They're thinking 'do I want to go into a profession where the pay has stagnated for three years?' and the last pay rise we had was a derisory 2.5%”

Tanya said the strike is over pay cuts, school funding, reduction in budgets for special needs education, and the cut in the places available in early years.

“We are striking for a number of things, pay being the major one. We want parity with our colleagues across the water and England, Wales and Scotland. The disparity between our pay and their pay is getting wider and wider.

“A young student's teacher said to me last year 'I could have two jobs and not be as exhausted'. We take our work home with us, we're marking constantly within this profession. It's not palatable anymore to young people. They want a life and rightly so.”

Pauline Buchanan, Joint Regional Secretary of NEU NI said teachers are at their wits’ end.

“The patience of teachers in Northern Ireland is wearing thin. They are the backbone of our education system, dedicating their lives to shaping the future of our youth. However, a consistent lack of progress in addressing their concerns has left them disheartened and frustrated.

“Northern Ireland's teachers find themselves trailing far behind their counterparts in neighbouring regions when it comes to their compensation. This wage disparity puts Northern Ireland's education system at risk, as many qualified educators seek better opportunities elsewhere.

“A teacher in Ballymena should not earn 85% of a teacher's wage in Scotland. The short boat ride is luring away talented, young teachers and we are seeing a recruitment crisis.”