Sixth form college teachers are striking for a fair pay deal, after the government announced a 5.5 percent pay rise for teachers that excludes sixth form colleges. Members of the National Education Union (NEU), who are on strike in over 30 colleges across the country, are demanding that the pay offer be extended to their sector.

I spoke to Dani Horsford, a maths teacher and NEU district secretary who is currently participating in strike action. She told me that the funding settlement ‘makes no sense’.

‘If you’re teaching, say, A level English in a school, you get paid more than if you teach a level English in a Sixth Form College.’

This unequal treatment hasn’t come as a surprise to sixth form college teachers, who have been neglected by successive governments. The Sixth Form College Association has released research showing that sixth forms receive 22 percent less funding from the government than mainstream schools — even though they teach exactly the same curriculum.

These disparities have made it challenging for sixth forms to recruit and retain teachers, leading to a spate of closures over the last several years. More than 70 sixth form colleges closed their doors between 2016 and 2019 amid funding cuts. Dani pointed out that if new funding isn’t provided, ‘there will be colleges that will go under, and that education might exist for those young people anymore.’

She also said that it’s a really easy problem to fix. ‘It’s such a small sector, it’s really easy to find the cash. We’re talking a drop in the ocean.’

The NEU has been struggling to make these arguments to the government, but the union has found it to get politicians and the media to notice the struggles of a relatively small sector.

‘A lot of the time, MPs don’t know we exist because they went to a school with a sixth form, or they went to a private school… so we get forgotten when it comes to the funding.’

This blatant unfairness has galvanised sixth form teachers up and down the country.

‘There are people who have never been on strike their whole teaching careers who have shown up every day of the strike… Even the least militant teachers have come on board.’

When I asked Dani why the reaction had been so strong, she told me that teachers have just had enough.

‘We’ve had how many years of austerity, and it’s just a continuation from the old government. We didn’t think this would happen under a Labour government. It feels very anti-labour.’

I asked Dani why she thought the new Labour government were treating the sector so poorly. Was it just negligence, or a kind of divide-and-rule strategy to try to undermine teachers’ bargaining power?

‘If it’s negligence, then it’s concerning how negligent the current the government is. We have contacted so many MPs and it’s been raised in the House of Commons, and we have been on strike for seven days now. We even spoke to Labour about the issue when they first came in, and we’ve repeatedly tried to hold meetings with them.

If they’re making mistakes over things like this, what else they’re making mistakes over?’

Seeing a Labour government come to power and utterly fail to deal with the challenges teachers are facing has radicalised many NEU members.

‘Our membership has been growing, and I would expect that to continue with the announcement from the government that teachers are not getting the funded pay rise next year. We’ve got we’ve got bills to pay, but we also need the bills at our schools and colleges to be paid.’

The speed and determination with which teachers have responded to the government’s failure sets an example for workers all over the country. This Labour government is, as Dani put it, about as ‘anti-labour’ as it can possibly be. Starmer seems far more concerned about the demands of corporate lobbyists than those of the unions that helped to found his party.

If workers want fair pay, better conditions, or investment in public services, they’re going to need to get organised and demand these things from a position of strength. This kind of organising isn’t just essential to ensuring workers’ survival, it’s also a crucial source of hope in a society where working people are constantly beaten down and disempowered.

‘There’s a lot of uncertainty,’ Dani told me, ‘and the only certainty we have got is the solidarity from the union.’