They were sold down the river by their unions who told them to accept the deal (because the unions had no desire to fight any further). I’ll be fair to the unions, the workers that make them up didn’t follow through with the strike actions (there is only so much that can be done) BUT the unions did a terrible job of communicating with the workers and backing up the strike action.

The 6.5% “increase” is a major pay cut for 2 reasons:

1 - it comes on the back of nearly no increase for the past few years (definitely not enough to even keep up with inflation over the past years).

2 - it’s about half the inflation this year.

Moreoever, it’s not funded. Funded means “the government spends that money on the education sector”. That would be “extra money to the budget”. Funded. The government said “3% will be funded through defunding other public services - targetting foeigners who use public services - and we hope that will be enough (it won’t be”.

So… where do the other 3.5% come from? They have to come from existing school budgets. Meaning all schools now have to make major budget cuts (they have already cut everything they could) to find that money. The education budget comes out even worse than it was before. And they’re calling it “a win”.

The budget cuts mean: whatever staff can be considered spare (tough decisions are going to have to be made), mostly the support staff, will have to be cut. In the UK, teachers already moan constantly about the lack of support staff. If you accepted that deal, that’s on you, fingers crossed you’re massively screwed for next year, well done you. Extra-curricular activities will be cut. Optional subjects (think arts, mostly) will have to be cut (which is one of the things the government has been aching to do for a long time).

And that’s considered a win. Class solidarity? Nowhere to be found.

So much more to add, but only so much you can add before people tune out.