Investing in young people is essential

MORE than one in three schools across Wales were affected by yesterday’s teacher strike, union bosses estimate.

The strength of feeling as hundreds of staff walked out, some for the first time, in so many schools, shows a strength of feeling the government and Education Minister Jeremy Miles must not ignore.

The Welsh Government says it cannot afford more than its belowinflation 5% offer to teachers, but there is more at stake here than pay. Teachers say they are not just taking action over the “insulting” pay offer, but to “save” an education system in crisis after years of cuts to school funding. These cuts have led to a teacher recruitment and retainment crisis that they warn is now affecting children’s education.

Unqualified staff are now covering classes in core subjects where schools cannot get the teachers they need. Class sizes are sometimes bigger, experienced teachers are leaving, those new to their careers are swapping to betterpaid, less-pressured professions.

At the same time this is a sector still reeling from the effects of the pandemic. Schools are dealing with trailing pupil attendance, a youth mental health crisis and changes to exams wrought by lockdowns.

This is the message from unions at the same time as the Welsh Government has said it wants a worldclass education system and continues to press ahead with reforms, laudible or not, such as the new curriculum, changes to the school year and exams, RSE and ALN teaching.

It feels at times as if those in charge are pressing on without attending to the reality of the effects of years of underfunding topped by a brutal pandemic; or to the fact that the basis of good education is good teaching.

The figures quoted during the strike do seem alarming. The NEU says around 20% of newly qualified teachers leave in the first five years citing reasons such as low pay and workload. The union estimates teacher pay has been eroded by 20% in the last decade or so.

NEU Wales secretary David Evans has accused the Welsh Government of underfunding education since devolution. Critics say it’s not just a matter of lack of funds from Westminster, but where Cardiff Bay chooses to spend those funds.

Our young people are the future of Wales. Investing in them is essential to our prosperity and health.