Jewish education boss sympathises with teachers striking over pay

The umbrella organisation representing mainstream Jewish education in the UK has defended teachers’ demands for higher pay, saying the community’s schools are not immune to the planned strike action.

Rabbi David Meyer, chief executive of the Partnerships for Jewish Schools (PaJeS), sympathised with the educators. “The sad reality is that many teachers are finding they cannot afford to live on their current salaries,” he said.

“The rise in the cost of living, pay increases below the rate of inflation and increased workloads has created an impossible dynamic and it is not surprising that we are facing a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.

“We have a duty to value the educators of our children. It is always worrying to see teachers striking but unless these concerns are addressed, we are in danger of it precipitating a far greater crisis.”

On Monday, the National Education Union (NEU) announced its intention to strike. Not enough members of two other unions – the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the National Association of Headteachers – voted in favour of taking industrial action.

The NEU has said it will hold strikes across England on Wednesday 1 February, Wednesday 15 March, and Thursday 16 March. There will also be a regional strike in London and the south-east on Thursday 2 March.

The Department for Education said: “After two years of disrupted education due to the pandemic, every single day spent in school with experienced teachers who know their students makes a difference to a child’s development.

“The NEU’s decision to call strike action puts children’s education and wellbeing at risk at a time when teachers are working hard to support them in recovering.”

It added that, in the event of strike action at a school, the school leaders or local authority that manages the school are tasked with taking “all reasonable steps to keep the school open for as many pupils as possible”.

The government said teachers were getting pay rises of at least five percent, up to an 8.9 percent increase for new teachers, which takes starting salaries to £28,000, or £34,500 in London.

The NEU said the strikes were “not about a pay rise but correcting historic real-terms pay cuts”, adding that “teachers have lost 23 percent in real-terms since 2010, and support staff 27 percent over the same period… The average 5% pay rise for teachers this year is some 7 percent behind inflation”.

Ministers added that teachers’ pensions are “among the best and safest available” with a 23.6 percent employer contribution. By contrast, it said, half of all private sector employees get an employer contribution of less than four percent.