INTERNATIONAL Workers’ Day gives us cause to celebrate the role workers play in all aspects of society, in countries all over the globe.

It gives us the chance to mark their struggles, celebrate their victories and look at the work we all have to do to achieve justice and equality for workers all around the world.

In education, our struggles as workers matter, not least because they help determine the quality of education provided by our schools and colleges to our children. 

Our working conditions are their learning conditions. And, in Britain, education is in the midst of a deep crisis, the like of which the profession has never seen before.

Teachers and support staff are leaving the profession in droves. And there aren’t enough coming in to replace them.

One in four teachers leave the profession within three years of qualification; a third within five. One in eight who qualified in summer 2021 had quit by the following year.

And the lack of teachers means subject specialists are declining.

More than 20,000 extra specialist teachers are needed to teach our children right now, including 4,000 maths teachers, almost 4,000 languages teachers and over 2,500 teachers in each of science, English, design and technology, and computing/ICT.

The government missed its already reduced training targets again last year — in secondary by a massive 50 per cent. It missed its targets in 15 out of 18 subjects and the number of job vacancies recorded in England’s schools is the highest since 2004.

Pay is a big factor in the recruitment and retention crisis. Teachers and school leaders came into the 2020s having already experienced severe pay cuts due to Conservative austerity policies, only to see the government freeze their pay in September 2021 as inflation began to take off. 

Since 2010, the average teacher has lost, in real terms, more than £79,000 in pay as their wages have failed to keep up with inflation. Simply staggering.

Workload is the other big reason our members give for leaving the job they so love. The pressures of teaching with meagre budgets, dealing with the effects of rising child poverty, and the extra work caring for students who cannot access services that used to be provided by local authorities, social and health services.

And, almost on top of the list, is the crushing pressure of Ofsted. A word that hangs heavy over our schools and all those who work in them. 

All of us know the pressure our inspection regime puts on schools, teachers, students. The sleepless nights, the anxiety, the urge to leave the profession. The effect the regime has on the mental health of teachers and support staff is nothing short of criminal. The tragic case of Ruth Perry, the popular and inspirational head teacher who took her own life following a negative Ofsted judgement on her school.

Two negative inspections can lead to forced academisation, the effective privatisation of a school, a decision that has far-reaching consequences. The strain shows in every corner of every classroom up and down this land.

Our union has led the campaign to abolish Ofsted. Earlier this year, a committee of MPs of all parties backed our calls for reform, saying government should look urgently to replace the system of one or two-word judgements which have done so much damage to the lives of educators and outcomes for their pupils.

Just imagine that. No more “inadequate” or “requires improvement” to sum up years of work and dedication to the education of young people.

But in response to the committee, the government has recently said it believes there are “significant benefits” to the current system and has no immediate plans to scrap single-word judgements.

At best this is a missed opportunity and at worst a kick in the teeth. Not least for Ruth’s family, who despite the weight of their awful personal tragedy, bravely stood up and spoke out about the devastation a poor Ofsted judgement could bring.

Despite a growing consensus for change, ministers still refuse to act. Ofsted has lost the trust of the profession and needs to be replaced.

And change can’t wait. Our schools, our teachers, our support staff and our pupils are desperate for it.

We will not stop our campaign until Ofsted is scrapped altogether and replaced by an accountability system which is supportive, effective and fair.

In the National Education Union, our members see day in, day out, the effect the education crisis is having on pupils and their lives.

As we fight for the rights of our members as workers, we also fight for the future of our children and their chances of a better tomorrow.

Daniel Kebede is general secretary of the NEU.