Teachers need a pay rise. The last 13 years have seen cuts of 38% to teachers’ pay in real terms.

Teachers face a deepening cost-of-living crisis, with rising bills for food, fuel and energy, council rates on top of inflation rate increases, and increases to National Insurance Contributions from April 2022.

Teachers have already lost thousands of pounds as a result of year-on-year pay cuts since 2010. For example, a teacher on M1 has lost £44,669, a teacher on M6 has lost £65,288, and a teacher on UPS3 has lost £76,064.

Many teachers are struggling to make ends meet. Our evidence indicates that more than half of teachers are cutting back on essential household expenditure and one in ten say that financial worries are affecting their ability to do the job.

The real terms cuts to teachers’ pay mean reduced value of teachers’ pensions in retirement, in addition to the reforms made to teachers’ pensions a decade ago which now mean that teachers have to pay more and work longer to receive less when they retire.

The proposed pay award for teachers for 2021-23 was woefully inadequate. For the majority of teachers, it would have resulted in no cost-of-living pay award since 2020.

Teachers are also getting a raw deal on workload. 91% of teachers report that the demands of the job have adversely affected their mental health in the last 12 months. 64% said the job had adversely affected their physical health. This is not a foundation for delivering high-quality education to pupils.

The NASUWT entered into an agreement in 2020 with the Department of Education to tackle workload concerns, but the commitments made by the Department of Education have not been fully delivered as workload and working hours continue to increase year on year.

Teachers and principals are being left to deal with a workload crisis. More and more demands and expectations are being placed on schools. Teachers are at breaking point. The Department and employers must be made to keep their promises.

In taking part in this strike, teachers will be making clear that they are opposed to continuing cuts to their pay and living standards, and that the working conditions of teachers must urgently be improved.