'It's not greedy to want a living wage'
12:25pm Thursday 24th April 2008
Hundreds of teachers across Sussex are today taking part in their first national strike for 21 years after rejecting a 2.45 per cent pay offer.
Noah Rutter, a drama teacher from Blatchington Mill School in Hove, who has been in the job for almost two years, explains why he and many of his colleagues around the country have been driven to take action.
I'd like to say first of all that I love the job.
Blatchington Mill is a great school, the pupils and staff are fun and friendly and there is an ethos of respect across the whole school that makes it a pleasure to teach here.
I started teaching because I like working with young people and I like being part of a community, helping build its future.
I am a member of the National Union of Teachers and today we will be taking strike action and not going to work for a day in protest.
I want people to understand why we are doing this because from the outside it may look as though it is a selfish act.
It is something I have had to think long and hard about and a decision that I haven't taken lightly. The most important thing I want people to know is that I am not striking and none of the teachers is striking because we want a pay rise. We are striking because we do not want a pay cut.
For four years teachers' pay increases have been below the rate of inflation and the new offer is also way below the rate of inflation, which would mean three more years of pay cuts.
I don't think it's being greedy to ask for my pay to increase at the same rate as a loaf of bread or a pint of milk.
A large problem for myself and other teachers new to the profession is that the interest on the student loans we took out to become teachers in the first place has risen to a rate of 4.8% yet we are being offered a pay increase of 2.4%.
Frankly it's insulting and it undermines our value.
The Government is saying new teachers are the best teachers out there, yet are not prepared to pay us at the same rate that our student loans have gone up. The results of this will be that many of these excellent new teachers will have to leave the profession.
The fact is that graduates with the same training and qualifications as a teacher are paid far more in other jobs.
If the Government does not pay teachers a fair rate it will lose them to the private sector.
When these excellent new teachers do leave the profession, how is the Government going to attract the best new practitioners in fields across the curriculum if they are not prepared to pay them a fair wage?
They will lose a generation of potentially great enablers and leave a generation of young people wanting.
Another problem for many teachers, especially teachers who are fairly new to the profession, is that we cannot afford to buy property in the communities we live in.
I could not even afford a studio flat on my wage in the area I teach in.
This means long and expensive commutes for some and the insecurity and wastefulness of forever renting for others.
I love my job and do not want to have to leave and, for me, being in the field of arts the teaching wage is a good wage compared with many colleagues of mine.
I work very hard for my money and that is absolutely as it should be and I never complain to friends or colleagues because I genuinely enjoy what I do.
I would hate for myself and all the other teachers out there striking to be seen as people ungrateful for their job and the money they get paid to do it.
This action is only about a fair wage, a living wage.
We are asking for our pay to go up the same amount living goes up.
I am not asking for hundreds of thousands of pounds, I am asking for enough to go on teaching and not have to worry about rising student debts and the rising cost of living.
I hope our strike action will make the Government take notice of its teachers, who it knows to be an important part of building a better society, a better economy and a better future.
If there was one teachers' union and all the teachers in this country decided to take action the Government would have to listen.
Hopefully it will not come to that if the Government listen to us today.