Once again, my son has been facing school closures as the National Education Union, the biggest teachers' union, is striking once again. Last time, the whole school was closed, except to ‘vulnerable pupils’; this time, it’s opening for Year 11 students who have upcoming exams.

It won’t affect my son too much – he’s studious and spent all of yesterday’s strike day revising for his exams. Other teenagers I’ve just seen hanging out.

School disruption

It’s not the best timing. Each of today’s schoolchildren has seen years of disruption to their education, and wellbeing, as schools were closed for months on end in an attempt to control Covid-19. Many are still recovering mentally, as well as catching up on missed education. Now schools are really struggling with attendance issues (as well as additional behavioural problems).

Having spent years assuring kids that good attendance is vital to do well in both exams and life, it’s not surprising that Covid school closures, when kids were effectively told that their education didn’t matter, undermined all that hard work. School attendance is now running at a record low. Yet what authority do teachers now have to enforce attendance, given that the actions of just a relative minority are effectively closing schools, while the rest work hard to try and keep what they can open?

There is no doubt that teachers deserve a good wage – it is a challenging job, with long hours (some teachers work throughout much of the holidays too). They are educating, and caring for, our young people – both the studious ones and the chaotic, damaged ones – as well as all those in between. They are expected to cover more and more than just their subjects, as many parents abstain from much of their own responsibility. Many teachers put 110% into their work – I saw the dedication of many of my children’s primary school teachers. It’s one of the reasons they still command a decent level of support from the public.

Ulterior motives

But has the teachers’ union, the NEU, in fact, got ulterior motives? Other teaching unions, who have had similar concerns about pay and conditions, have come to a settlement with the government, which many consider to be fair and reasonable considering current pressures. Of course, many have known for years of the socialist leanings of the NEU, once known as the NUT. Teachers in recent generations have been known for being more left-leaning than the general population.

The NEU has shown its true colours in a recent book, Lessons in Organising, endorsed by the general secretary, Keven Courtney, and co-authored by David Wilson, their head of communications, and an executive member, Gawain Little. They state, contrary to the legal remit of trade unions, that “struggles over teachers’ work can never be restricted to narrow questions of pay and workload”, but are part of a broader campaign to “explicitly confront the corrosive nature of neoliberal ideology”. It’s a wider struggle too – “workers must wage a sustained political struggle in order to change the wider context… embracing workers’ struggle in all spheres”, where “workers, through their unions, must engage in mass extra-parliamentary political struggle.”

This mirrors the words used by Daniel Kebede, the leader of the NEU, who spoke of the fight of “taking back control of an education system from a brutally racist state”.

Much of the motivation for the NEU’s actions in the pandemic era are laid bare too – though long suspected. The NEU was the leading voice for keeping the schools closed, long after other workplaces had begun to reopen, and even for masking up children for long days after schools opened up. The book boasts how, while families were struggling, the NEU’s leadership saw the pandemic as an “opportunity to radically reimagine the future”, and how, in inflicting “numerous defeats on government”, they “demonstrated what is possible when grassroots organising integrates industrial and political dimensions with explicit ideological struggle”.

I have sympathy with their position of disliking the exam factory approach – there is too great an emphasis put on achievement in examinations, and much teaching has to cater to how the exams are marked. The approach works well for some, but is hugely problematic for others. Engagement in constructive discussion on this and other points by educators and government would be a good thing – but will not be effective with the constant threat of strike action.

Teachers, parents, and government need to be aware that the NEU’s damaging action is about much more than pay and conditions, but an ideological and political struggle.

Learning from history

What is the answer to this? As Christians, we certainly need to pray. But we could consider the lessons of the past. There will always be a number of people with a strong socialist bent. (I'm not just talking about being left-wing, here, but what is called the 'hard-left', and communism, which is are the leanings of the NEU activists). It is an ideology that is persuasive in rhetoric, and easily deludes those who don’t take time to thoroughly think through the consequences. Indeed, there are aspects of socialism that many Christians would warmly welcome; but it does have the tendency to lead in the direction of totalitarianism, invasive control, poverty and, in the most extreme cases, murder (think Stalin’s Russia as a prime example.)

Many historians agree that the one reason Britain didn’t succumb to the same revolutionary disaster that engulfed France in the late 18th Century was the widespread impact of the Wesleyan Revival. Indeed, the history of Britain shows that the greatest social steps forward have frequently followed widespread revival. As individuals turn to God and begin to follow His ways, crime falls, people seek the good of each other, and negotiated change can impact laws and communities positively.

Turning to God

If we want to resist the godless attempt to sway our schools and society by Trotskyist idealogues, manipulating legitimate teachers’ concerns to a more radical agenda, then prayer, sharing the gospel, and being salt and light in our communities in whatever way God calls us is the best and only truly impactful way to do this.

The younger generation is already more open to the gospel than previous ones, due in great measure to the challenges that have impacted them so much recently. It’s time to proclaim, in word and deed, the Kingdom of God.