AS TEACHERS from across the UK gather in Birmingham today for the NASUWT annual conference, they do so at a moment when our education system is being pushed beyond its limits.

Years of underfunding, rising pupil need and political neglect have pushed schools to breaking point. Teachers are not insulated from the wider pressures facing working people – from rising rents to soaring energy bills – and they are carrying the weight of a system that asks more and more of them every year.

Teaching has always been a challenging job but it is in danger of becoming unsustainable. 
Many teachers now routinely work 50 hours a week and two thirds of them tell us they feel constantly judged.

Many tell us they feel more like social workers than teachers, picking up the pieces left by cuts to support services — chasing CAMHS referrals that take far too long, managing pupils in crisis because early help and youth services have vanished, and supporting families who have nowhere else to turn.

Behaviour has deteriorated in too many schools, with teachers reporting levels of violence and abuse that would be unthinkable in any other profession. Nearly one in five teachers was physically assaulted last year. More than half faced verbal abuse. And one in four teachers say violence is now treated as “part of the job.”

This is not normal or acceptable, but it is not and cannot be inevitable.

These pressures do not fall evenly though. Women, who make up the majority of the profession, face the added injustice of weakened maternity pay, inflexible working patterns and the rising cost of childcare.

Our latest survey of members shows 95 per cent of teachers struggle to balance work and parenting, and 70 per cent have considered leaving the profession because of the impact on their children. Too many are forced back to work early because they cannot afford to stay at home as long as they would want with their child. I firmly believe a society that cannot guarantee dignity and security for working mothers is a society that has lost its way.

I have spent my life in the trade union movement, and I have seen this pattern before. When governments refuse to invest, when employers cut corners, when workers are told to “do more with less,” the burden always falls on the people who care most about the job.

Teachers are no exception to this. They go the extra mile because they believe in children, in the power of learning and in the transformative power of education. But teacher goodwill is not and must not be a substitute for proper funding, safe workplaces or a fully funded pay award.
And it certainly cannot be the foundation of a world-class education system.

When I spoke at the Durham Miners’ Gala last year, I highlighted how NASUWT teachers hold communities together when everything else is being stripped away. In towns and cities across the UK, it is teachers who notice when a child hasn’t eaten, who support families in crisis, who provide stability when public services have been cut to the bone. They are the glue that keeps communities functioning, often without recognition, and too often without the support they also need.

Yet instead of valuing this work, governments have treated education as something that can be run on the cheap.

We see it in the SEND proposals that push responsibilities onto teachers without the staffing, training or facilities to make it work.

We see it in the climate crisis hitting classrooms where temperatures regularly become unsafe, and where decades of underinvestment have left buildings crumbling. We see it in the rise of misogyny and online radicalisation in schools, fuelled by toxic social media and AI algorithms, with teachers left to manage the fallout often without the training or support they need.

And when it comes to funding, we can see that teachers’ pay has fallen in real terms and redundancies are rising.

And as we see with the war in Iran, renewed pressure on global energy and procurement costs could further destabilise school budgets. Any rise in inflation linked to soaring oil prices will make the government’s already unrealistic assumptions about affordability harder to sustain.

And back in our schools we still have the grotesque spectre of academy bosses continuing to take home six-figure salaries. Consultancy spending has ballooned to over £400 million and private SEND providers fleece cash-strapped councils for tens of thousands per child.

Public money is being funnelled away from the front line while schools cut staff, narrow the curriculum and expect teachers to buy basic resources out of their own pockets.

The truth is simple — if we want the best for children, we must invest in the dedicated workforce who teach them.

That means fair pay and, crucially, fully funded pay. A pay rise that comes out of existing school budgets is not a pay rise at all. It is a cut to staffing, leads to cuts in provision and means children’s education ultimately suffers.

Many schools are already running deficits. Some are stripping back essential support just to stay afloat. This is clear to teachers, parents and to MPs and ministers.

It also means manageable workload and safe classrooms. We must have proper support for behaviour, mental health and children with special educational needs. We need to see maternity rights that allow women to start families without the fear of choosing between their family and their finances.

Teachers are asking for fairness, respect and the basic conditions required to do their jobs well. If governments will not provide that willingly, then the profession will organise to win it.

The history of our movement tells us that progress is never handed down willingly from above. It is won when working people stand together, speak with one voice and refuse to be ignored.
That is what NASUWT members are doing now.

We will build our strength in every workplace. We will campaign relentlessly. And where necessary, we will take action out of a determination to defend our members and the future of education.

When teachers stand up, they stand up not only for themselves, but for every child, every family and every community that depends on a strong, properly funded public education system.

And we intend to stand up together until we win for children and the profession.