Over 60% of Twinkl survey respondents voted to strike and here’s why

In January, the National Education Union (NEU) announced that teachers across England and Wales would be striking across seven dates in February and March.

The announcement of the teacher strikes have been met with discussions about the factors that have led to the strike action. Many educators have been coming together to highlight some of the struggles they face on a daily basis as a result of their profession.

At Twinkl, these challenges are something that we can understand as many of our team members are either current or former educational professionals. Our mission as a global educational publisher is to support our educators when they need us, we listen to them and appreciate the pressures they are under and want to offer our platform as a way for our community to share their views.

Over the past month, we have invited our members to take part in our online survey to share how they feel about the current strike action. Almost 1000 Twinkl members opted to take part in our online survey, showing us that over 60% of those surveyed were motivated to strike due to wellbeing, 58% said it was due to funding within the profession, and 54% of respondents said it was due to pay.

One member spoke of how she has been personally affected by the demand teachers are under, she said, “The workload is taking a toll on my mental health, as a new mum and a teacher, finding the balance can be difficult. Working late nights, catching up on paperwork that's never ending defeats the actual purpose of teaching, making fun lessons, as all the energy goes into the paperwork and deadlines.”

Speculation around the cause of these strikes have led to further concerns being raised by those within the profession, one respondent said, “Teachers feel guilty not teaching but need to make their voices heard for change. Strikes could divide staff - too many different unions mean the message is not as strong as it should be and this can put staff in a difficult position. Young staff and those who do not earn as much lose pay, which is a concern if the strikes have to go on longer.”

Long working hours and recruitment struggles were amongst other things mentioned as contributory factors to the strikes. We found that 51% of respondents were taking part in the strikes, with only 6% of them having switched unions in order to do so.

One Twinkl member, who opted not to take part in the strikes, said, “As a single parent with no support from my previous partner, I cannot afford to not earn for days not worked - despite fully supporting colleagues that choose to strike.”

Whereas, some members who had voted for strike action spoke about their fears of how this action would be perceived by members of the public. It was said,  “I fear the public will turn more against us, but these strikes are necessary before the education system is completely defunded.”

Our findings align closely to research recently conducted by TwinklHive residents, Teacher Tapp, a company founded by two former teachers, who collect information from teachers daily through their free to use survey app. The app enables teachers to share their views and opinions on a range of different topics.

Their survey asked over 4.5K of their members for their opinions on the strikes, finding that the majority of their members spoke supportively of the strikes, linking many of the reasons to be due to a lack of balance within the profession, relating to low pay, long working hours and broader economic and social factors.

These responses mirrored some of the information shared within the similar survey conducted by Twinkl. Our survey found that many of our respondents were teachers across England who have been part of the profession for over a decade (over 54%), they said, “I don't think the public realises the stress public sector workers are under, especially when it comes to teaching and the only reason we strike is for our pupils.”

Leon Smith, Chief Customer Officer at Twinkl, said, “As a former teacher myself, I understand the pressures our educators face on a daily basis. Teachers do a great deal of work behind the scenes, working longer hours, but they do it for us and our children, to further their education and give them a better future. Twinkl was founded with the mission to help those who teach. As a company who is here to support educators, we conducted this survey to be able to offer an insight into the feelings of the education sector and to amplify their voices.”

We have created a number of articles for both parents and educators with further information surrounding the strikes, with key information for further support. Information for educators can be found here, and we have more FAQs linked here.

For ideas on how to keep your children entertained whilst they are off school during the school strikes click here.

For further support, members can reach out to our 24/7 TwinklCares team here.