Students and parents alike are surely aware of the teacher strikes that have taken place all over the United Kingdom at the start of February, but do you know why they happened? Teachers and other staff in education have taken action against the government regarding unfair pay, poor work conditions, and much more. And whilst that’s all well and good, how does this affect the students?

Primary school students may see this as a fun day off school to see friends or catch up on the latest cartoons, but who will look after them? Many parents work during the day and aren’t able to take a few days off of work. Luckily, some may have older siblings that can watch them or stay-at-home parents, but that isn’t the case for all. In some schools, there have been enough teachers not striking that the students have somewhere to go during the day.

Secondary school and A-level students are in a similar position, yet most are old enough to be home without their parents. Like primary schools, certain secondary schools had enough teachers to allow younger students, and those who can’t stay at home, to come in. However, not all could afford to take time off since they have exams coming up in a few months. This goes for year 11s and year 13s, who are sitting the first proper exams since Covid started and may academically suffer from having unexpected time off of school.

University students are in a completely different boat since they have to pay for their education. With the average yearly tuition fee of £9,250, is it fair to students for lecturers to not come in? Uni student Grace Paul says, “I had seminars cancelled which are integral to my overall grades, my essays are being marked later meaning there’s less time to get feedback for the next one, and it’s messed up my routine causing my anxiety to increase since there’s so much more to stress about”.

Although teachers are entitled to want better pay and working conditions, with the world still fresh out of the pandemic during which students lost a lot of education through no fault of their own, is teachers striking and causing further disruption to the education of our younger generations the best course of action that they should be taking at this time?