'Schools are running on empty': Education union warns of ‘severe crisis’ as indicative strike ballot opens
Schools are running on empty, a teaching union has warned, as teachers begin voting in an indicative strike ballot.
The National Education Union (NEU) launched an indicative ballot today (February 28) asking members if they would be prepared to strike over teacher pay and workload as well as school funding.
The ballot will be open from February 28 until April 17.
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Schools are running on empty.
“Expecting schools to fund a 6.5 per cent pay increase over three years from existing budgets is simply not possible.
“The Treasury has made itself a laughing stock by claiming there are still efficiencies to be made.
“Chronic underfunding from successive governments has led to the severe crisis in our schools.
“Old equipment and broken furniture. Battered textbooks. Years of missed targets in recruitment have driven up workload, as have the numbers leaving and not being replaced.
“A failure to properly fund our schools also means fewer teaching assistants and larger classes.”
The Department for Education (DfE) has recommended teachers should receive a 6.5 per cent pay increase over the next three years, which unions have criticised.
NEU members will be asked in the ballot if they reject this proposal, and whether they would be prepared to take industrial action to secure an above-inflation pay increase, reduce workload, and get sufficient funding to back these and prevent redundancies in schools.
An NEU survey in January of members found seven in 10 teachers believed their school did not have enough funding to meet basic provision for pupils.
The NEU, which is the largest teaching union in the UK, announced it would hold an indicative ballot in November following the autumn budget.
Teachers were awarded a 4 per cent pay rise for the 2025/26 academic year, following 5.5 per cent in 2024/25, and 6.5 per cent in 2023/24 after the NEU went on strike.
The National Foundation for Educational Research has found the recent increases have brought teacher starting salaries back up to 2010/11 levels in real terms.
However, the growth in teacher starting salaries between 2010/11 and 2025/26 was lower than average earnings growth over that time.
