Hundreds join march
Teachers and supporters flocked to the streets of Chichester last Thursday to take strike action over a lack of funding in schools.
Starting at 11.30am, protesters marched through the streets of the constituency of Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, to make their voices heard.
Shop owners clapped from outside their businesses and cars beeped their horns in solidarity as the protesters, who came from all across the county, made their way through the city.
Stopping at the Market Cross, the leader spoke to the marchers and residents alike.
He said: “Join us, talk to Gillian. Tell her to fund our schools.
"She can afford a ten grand Rolex, we can’t and we don’t want to be able to, we just want to be able to pay the bills and keep teachers in front of classes.”
Cries of ‘Come on Gill, pay the bill’ and ‘oh Rishi, you’re so tight, you’re so tight, that’s why we strike, hey Rishi’ echoed throughout, as well as calls to the government for change, as the march proceeded through the city.
The marchers also made sure to stop by Mrs Keegan’s office where protestors called for her to make an appearance with ‘don’t be shy, Gill, we know you’re in there’.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) have voted to take strike action on seven days across England and Wales in a bid to raise awareness of what they say is a lack of funding in schools.
They said this is having an adverse impact on children and they expressed concerns about teachers’ pay.
A dispute over pay is the catalyst for the industrial action, with NEU members wanting a pay rise of 12 per cent.
The government is offering a pay rise of five per cent.
The union says teachers’ pay has fallen by 24 per cent since 2010 due to inflation and that government funding is not being provided to fully fund pay rises.
The union is said to be considering a pay rise of nine per cent, if the Government fully funds it.
The unions are also using the strikes to raise awareness of what they say is underfunding in schools as a result of funding not keeping in line with rising costs.
This means schools are having to make cuts to balance the books.