Leaving aside, for a moment, legitimate questions about the public finances, inflation and the role of education in society, it cannot be right that many teachers in England and Wales feel that the cost of living crisis and increasingly heavy workloads are driving them out of their vocation.
So much so, indeed, that they have embarked on a series of strikes that will undoubtedly hurt children, inconvenience parents and cost the teachers themselves about seven days’ pay. It is sad, and regrettable, that the teachers have decided to strike because, as they would acknowledge, it means real disruption and hardship to the families affected. Experience during the pandemic proves that it is the poorer children who are disproportionately damaged by interruptions to their schooling.
As the education minister Nick Gibb, one of the most moderate and thoughtful members of the government, points out, every day lost in a child’s education is a lost opportunity. The teachers are understandably frustrated, but was there no way they could push their argument short of industrial action?
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