Teacher Strikes: Halting the Exodus?
By Adi Bloom
Fear of divine retribution ain’t what it used to be. On the whole, therefore, knowledge of the Bible nowadays tends to be limited to the religiously observant and fans of 1950s Technicolor epics. (The two groups are not interchangeable; only one of them subscribes to the unshakeable belief that Samson had a teddy-boy quiff and Delilah a perm.)
As the never-off-duty champions of the nation’s general knowledge, however, teachers have valiantly stepped in to fill the gap. If too few people are acquainted with the stories of the Bible, then it is up to teachers to address the issue. And, frankly, there is no measure too great when it comes to education.
And so, this week, the education profession as a whole decided to re-enact the Old Testament story of the exodus from Egypt.
The story begins with the Children of Israel in bondage as slaves to the Egyptian pharaoh. They work day and night, for no pay. Pharaoh, however, scoffs at their hardship: “They have homes. They’re fed. They don’t know how good they have it.”
Making her debut in the role of Pharaoh, we have the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, who has repeated her claim that teachers are “in the top earners” across the country. Keegan had previously said that teachers were “probably in the top 10 per cent of earners in some parts of the country”.
This week, Ms Keegan told an ITV interviewer that, once extra factors such as pensions contributions were brought into consideration, teachers – “outside of London in particular” – would be among the top earners.
But the reality of the slaves’ lives is very different: they are working in unsafe, unsanitary conditions, which pose a constant threat to their lives.
Seven unions have written a joint letter to Keegan, pointing out that deteriorating school buildings are on the brink of collapse.
A DfE report acknowledges that some school buildings are at risk of collapse. The letter – from the NEU and NASUWT teaching unions, the NAHT school leaders’ union and the Unison, Unite, GMB and Community trades unions – states that this is “a truly shocking admission. We have reached rock bottom.”
With morale ever-sinking, it is therefore up to the representatives of the Children of Israel – NEU general secretaries Kevin Courtney and Mary Bousted, playing the roles of Moses and Aaron respectively – to meet Pharaoh and demand that he let their people go.
Their meeting with the education secretary – the latter resplendent in asp headdress and fake beard – on Wednesday this week ended without a resolution. While similar conversations in Scotland and Wales ended with a pay offer, none was made in London.
Moses warned Pharaoh that, if he continued to deny the Children of Israel their freedom – or at least a decent pay offer – a succession of plagues would be visited upon Egypt. Specifically, the union would continue with its proposed strikes, as well as potentially adding further teacher strike dates after 16 March.
Of course, in the original Old Testament story, Pharaoh simply bought himself more time. With each plague that was visited upon him, he promised to let the Children of Israel go – only to renege at the last minute. Finally, Moses set an irrevocable deadline: let my people go, or a terrible final plague will afflict your nation.
But Pharaoh cared nothing for deadlines: the Department for Education failed to meet this year’s deadline for submitting its evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body.
In what some believe is an acknowledgement of Pharaoh’s divine right to rule, the STRB has responded by simply coming up with a new deadline. This week, it announced that all parties would have until 22 March to submit written evidence. It said that this would ensure that its report and recommendations were available by the end of May.
But Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said this merely demonstrated that the STRB’s independence was nothing but a charade.
Meanwhile, threats of that terrible final plague hang over Pharaoh’s head. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told Tes that his union could move to a formal strike ballot, if there was no new pay offer from the government in the forthcoming Budget, on 15 March.
Barton spoke of “a greater sense of urgency with the whole thing”. He said: “There does need to be a sense of an end game with this. I think the most obvious question from our point of view is: are we sufficiently reassured that the talks are moving towards something?”
Meanwhile, reinforcing the notion of 15 March as a day of Biblical-scale reckoning, DfE and Ofsted staff have also announced that they will be striking then.
The Public and Commercial Services union has said that it will stage walkouts, as a result of ongoing disputes with the government over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security.
The Children of Israel are massing. Pharaoh is in an increasingly weak position. Blood is being daubed on doorposts. The situation is unsustainable. DfE ministers may want to gather on the House of Commons terrace and watch the waters of the Thames for any signs of imminent parting – divine retribution may be about to stage a dramatic comeback.
