Ben Lowry: It was tone deaf to increase teacher pay when schools are out so long and when we are in a health and financial crisis

His letter, which was published on Thursday (see link below) pointed out that teachers have been working remotely during the Covid-19 crisis, and that their backdated pay award that was recently confirmed had been agreed as part of the deal to return Stormont.

In fact this newspaper has not “been on the back of teachers” as he thought, but we have raised questions about the wisdom of the pay rise at this time. I have mentioned it myself in this column.

There are two separate matters that can get entangled in any debate about teacher pay.

The first is the value of teachers.

The second is the appropriateness of a pay rise at this time.

Teachers are so influential in our lives that we remember them from childhood. I can recall each one since I joined P1 in the 1970s, even some of the temporary teachers.

With one or two exceptions, I have very warm memories about them. A handful are now friends, and shortly before lockdown I had two ex teachers round for lunch.

I fully realise the vital importance of the profession and its need to attract good young recruits.

Fair pay and conditions are always going to be part of that. In parts of the UK the government has offered cash incentives to maths and physics teachers, given difficulties in retaining them.

The recent announcement that Stormont will press ahead with its pay rise for NI teachers was justified on the basis that was part of January’s New Decade New Approach agreement to revive devolution. But the world has been turned upside down since January.

Not only that, but schools closed well before Easter and will not now be coming back until September and perhaps not fully even then.

Teachers claim that they are working as hard as ever remotely, but even if so they are not providing the same care for children.

The former Labour education minister Lord Blunkett this week attacked the reluctance of teaching unions in England to return to school in June. It was, he said, exacerbating inequality.

“Only one in seven of the most vulnerable children are getting educated,” he said. “So we have got a vast swathe of youngsters with varying degrees of online teaching — some children getting nothing, some teachers really putting themselves out to make this work and be there for the children.”

At the start of lockdown this paper reported on the can-do attitude of some teachers, such as one teacher who was uneasy about schools having to stay open for the children of key workers, but said: “Generally we think it is a risk but we understand we all have to put our shoulder to the wheel.”

That quote was an almost moving illustration of the national spirit that has been so evident in this crisis. But we have also reported on more troubling attitudes within schools, such as a married couple who are key workers but who told us that their children’s school had wrangled out of the requirement to take their offspring at this time.

Early in this crisis, some experts said that the last thing to close should be schools, because children are least at risk and because it makes it easier for key workers to go to their jobs. Also because children might end up being cared for by their grandparents — who are vastly more vulnerable to the impacts of coronavirus than children.

In mid March I talked to a doctor who is influential in Northern Ireland’s response to Covid-19 who felt that the Republic had moved too early to close schools.

Yet across the UK, and particularly in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Fein insisted we follow the Republic, there was massive pressure to close them, as they soon did.

Since then there has been almost no scrutiny in the media here of the decision not to restart NI schools until September (in line with the Republic). Yet I know parents who feel the closures have pushed them to breaking point, with months more of it ahead.

But if schools are going to reopen in stages, for reasons of social distancing, it will greatly slow a return to schooling. Would it not be better to start that process as soon as possible? And is there not a case for schools staying open several days into July and then restarting for a couple of weeks before September to make up for lost education?

Some unions seem to expect a guarantee of perfect safety for teachers before any return. Yet people employed in shops or other key roles were not able to wait for their workplace to be entirely risk free.

Some of us think NI is being far too reticent in coming out of lockdown, given increasingly stark evidence that it is causing premature excess non Covid deaths (and perhaps even deaths of people who are younger than the average Covid dead, who is over 80).

But critics who want to move faster to avert social, health and economic catastrophe have been losing the argument. That being so, we must be realistic about the ruinous cost of a lockdown that our politicians want to ease at a glacial pace.

We must examine the utterly uneven way it is impacting people, destroying businesses and whole industries, while the most of the public sector is untouched.

And we cannot be surprised that the UK government has said support schemes such as furlough are going to cost so much, while tax revenues plunge, that public sector pay might have to be frozen for a year or two to avoid national bankruptcy.

If that is so, I think the whole nation would be sympathetic if a list was drawn up of frontline roles that are exempt from any pay cut, and which might even get bonuses.

If schools stay out, teachers will not deserve inclusion in that group.

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

• Letter: We teachers are working during this pandemic

—— ——

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor