Why teachers need our support

I’m not a teacher but I’m proud to say that I come from a family of teachers. Next month, after more than 30 years in the profession, and at just 56, one close relative will be retiring on grounds of ill-health. Last January she suffered a pulmonary embolism, brought on, in a roundabout way, by the stresses and demands of her job. I tell you this because all too often I hear someone warble on about what a cushy number teachers have got. These people are wrong, and increasingly so.

Along with doctors, nurses and the emergency and uniformed services, teachers are part of the outstanding cadre of public servants who together form the very backbone of Britain. It’s testament to the integral role teachers play within the day-to-day function of our society that just the whisper of an all-out strike will so incense broad swathes of the media, politicians and the public alike. Parents everywhere entrust teachers with their children’s education, their development and their safety on a daily basis. So why aren’t they more revered?

The truth is that it isn’t easy being a teacher. Sure, there’s a decent salary, a pension, regular hours and long holidays. But you’ll be hard-pressed to find a teacher who doesn’t start early or stay late, be it lesson planning or marking. Or one who doesn’t spend a good chunk of their holidays writing reports. Furthermore, many are expected to educate their classes whilst managing a crowd of sometimes abusive, foul-mouthed and almost always unappreciative teenagers (even pre-teens). I jest but in reality teachers are often relied upon to identify underlying learning difficulties or to provide support for vulnerable young people whose unstable and sometimes appalling home conditions leave them isolated and at risk. All of this with a multitude of deadlines and targets to meet.

It’s little wonder that stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, alcoholism and increased risk of suicide are oft-cited side-effects of teaching. I’m fortunate to count some inspiring teachers amongst my friends and my colleagues in the Labour Party. I’m sad to say that a couple have been forced into premature retirement on grounds of ill-health. Both had depression. There’s no doubt that the last Labour government brought about unparalleled improvements to the profession with investment in education at an all-time high but, still, in 2007 research showed that  more than half of all teachers thought of quitting, early retirements were on the rise and 71% of Scottish teachers believed their job was affecting their health.

But things are only going to get worse. Teachers face unrelenting and ever-increasing pressures from a variety of sources. Changes in the welfare system, including cuts to EMA, will make it harder for some families to justify keeping students in full time education beyond sixteen. Whilst rising unemployment and reduced household incomes will wreak havoc on the home lives of younger children, with inevitable impact in the classroom. On top of that, the Government is hell-bent on implementing its ideologically-driven, absurd marketisation of public education via the Free Schools programme, which plays perfectly into the hands of pushy parents and further undermines the teaching profession. At a time when the Government is scrapping long-planned school rebuilding projects and reducing the budgets of SEN departments in local authorities across the Country, the Secretary of State for Education wants to fork out hundreds of thousands of pounds on new Bibles for schools. It’s fair to say that good teachers are facing an uphill battle.

Already, schools are talking of a crisis in recruitment. Everybody understands the profound effect that an inspirational teacher can have on a young person’s life. But there’s a real risk that those inspirational teachers will grow fewer and further between if we can’t attract the brightest, most outstanding candidates to what is a noble but underappreciated profession. The longer-term consequences of which will be the failure of successive generations of young Britons.

Teachers perform an outstanding and demanding job in more than difficult conditions. They are on the front-line in the battle to mitigate the effects of cruel and damaging Tory policy, working hard to ensure that, whatever their personal circumstances, young people everywhere have as good and equal a start in life as is possible. Teachers deserve better than the cruel and disparaging treatment they will receive from the press and public over the next few days, for everything that they and successive Labour schools and education ministers worked for is at very serious risk.