A government that prioritises maths teaching has got its sums wrong. Counterfire NEU members argue that teachers and students should not pay the price 

The government has shattered the pay and funding deal agreed with teachers’ unions in July. At 5.30pm on Friday, the Department for Education revealed that it is putting £370 million less funding into schools than agreed in the summer. This means that what looked like a 2.7% uplift (to cover the increased pay won through strike action) will only be 1.9%. 

If the teacher pay rises are implemented – and it’s essential that they are – there will be direct cuts by schools unless this is rectified. So much for this week’s Tory conference rhetoric about education funding being a top priority. It is the government’s duty to immediately put in the necessary funding. It has been uncovered that the so-called calculation error was identified at some point in September. Why, then, was it announced on a Friday evening in October? It looks like it was postponed until Tory conference was out of the way. 

Betrayal

A government that wants everyone to study maths until age 18 is, it seems, unable to get its own sums right. 

It is a betrayal of what was agreed in the deal. Members of four education unions voted to accept a deal that has now been broken by the government. It is null and void. The NEU teachers’ strikes – with eight days of action nationally – were motivated in massive part by teachers’ concern about school funding, not just the pay issue. The demand for a fully funded pay rise was central. 

The RAAC scandal has illustrated the chronic underfunding of school premises. More widely, our schools are under huge strain. This latest outrage highlights the need for real funding increases in education. As the Tories have scuppered the pay and funding deal, there is no reason for unions to be trapped by it. The NEU has a live strike mandate as a result of the ballot that closed in July. This continues until January. We must now use that mandate to take nationwide strike action. The demand must be for full funding of the pay rise we have been promised. Not one school should be cutting our children’s education due to Tory contempt, incompetence and neglect. 

We need coordinated strike action and campaigning by education unions – with the backing of parents and communities – to force this government to cough up. Budget Day is 22 November. Strike action before then is viable, but we should certainly be seeking joint strike action – and a massive national demonstration in central London – to greet this dying government’s budget.

Please raise this motion at your branch