Sixth-form tutors who are involved in a pay dispute with the government

STRIKING college teachers this week said they were witnessing the “slow torture” of the sector due to dwindling and unfair pay and high living costs.

Gathering for a march outside Keir Starmer’s office yesterday (Thursday), biology teacher at Capital City College 6th Form in Angel Pippa Dowswell demanded the prime minister “sort it out”.

She said: “The system is broken. Teachers are working in a broken system. No wonder it’s hard to retain and recruit. Keir Starmer, sort it out. Sort it out. There’s going to be massive social problems in the future. I can see it. Sort it out now.”

College tutors are striking over a “two-tier” pay dispute. The government gave schools and academised sixth-forms a 5.5 per cent pay increase for the academic year. However, this excluded approximately 40 non-academised sixth-form colleges who have been offered a 3.5 per cent pay rise from September, rising to 5.5 in April.

Ms Dowswell said they were in “complete shock” at the inequity.

She said: “We’ve had an offer, but the offer isn’t good enough.

“There’s two reasons. One is about fairness and parity, and even though it’s only going to amount to about 540 pounds each, which actually to us, is quite a lot of money, so to the Department for

Education to pay it, for them that money is absolutely nothing.

Capital City College 6th Form tutors Pippa Dowswell and Mike Provender

“Secondly we don’t want to be pulled out of national bargaining that would be a disaster for our sector. We will end up with a disparity between us and the secondary schools, and therefore we will have a recruitment issue. Because why would you come and teach at a sixth-form college when you can get more pay in your local secondary school?”

Duncan Blackie, national executive member for further education at the National Education Union (NEU), said college education is essential for giving young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, a “second chance” at life.

He said: “College is a second chance for everybody. Lots of people who didn’t prosper at school, who found it difficult to relate to academic life, find their feet in sixth-form colleges, and find a way to move on and build themselves a career and a life out of it.

“If our colleges wither on the vine then that’s a real kick in the teeth for social mobility.”

Mike Provender, a geography teacher at Capital City College in Angel, said: “We had staff in our college, young staff who couldn’t live in London because of property prices. Two of them moved from Walthamstow and Highgate to Birmingham.

Duncan Blackie of the National Education Union (NEU)

“I describe it as slow torture taking place in the sector. progressively, you’re lowering the quality of education through the inadequate funding. Yes, the face-to-face experience by the students, is suffering, in terms of the options that you choose from, in terms of those coming from more deprived backgrounds, in terms of the support we have.

“I think I fall into the category of staff probably having to work later to pay off things like mortgages. Two of our colleagues were beyond 67 and still working because they needed to actually pay off certain things.

“We know of staff, not exactly at our college, whose salary doesn’t run to the end of the month, who are having to go to things like food banks.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Ensuring people have the skills they need for the future is crucial to this government’s number one mission to grow the economy.

“We recognise the vital role that further education, including sixth-form colleges, play in this.

“Sixth-form colleges are responsible for the setting of appropriate pay for their workforce and for managing their own industrial relations.

“The October Budget provided an additional £300m revenue funding for further education to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs. The department will set out in due course how this funding will be distributed.”