Norfolk teacher says next Government must put together a "long-term plan" for schools
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A teacher in Norwich is telling us that the next Government must put together a "long-term, non-political" plan for schools and education.
The appeal comes as the majority of political parties have launched their manifesto for this election, with Labour releasing theirs today and Reform UK launching theirs on Monday.
"We could see as many as 18,000 schools close"
Scott Lyons also works for the National Education Union in Norfolk and says the introduction of artificial intelligence represents fresh challenges and opportunities:
"How is that going to be introduced into primary and secondary schools?
"On top of that is the demographic changes that we're likely to see.
"By 2030, it's widely predicted that we're going to have half a million fewer children in schools, which means that we could see as many as 18,000 schools close - something that we're already seeing the beginnings of in London."
"We're socialising children now, more than just teaching them"
He told us more about the problems he's spotting in schools: "Some of the mental health challenges among students are getting worse. Schools have been on the frontline of that and tackling issues like poverty.
"I hear constant reports of children going hungry, teachers changing nappies and staff teaching students how to use a knife and fork. We're socialising children now, more than just teaching them.
"Historically there's been a lack of courage from our political leaders on spelling out how education is going to look in the next 10 years and how much money is going to go towards it."
A glance at the state of teaching in the UK:
Total teacher vacancies in UK now stand at over 2,800 - this is six times higher than it was in 2010 (452).
The average salary for a classroom teacher now stands at £43,100. This stood at £35,447 in 2010.
Teacher to pupils ratio in secondary schools is now 1 to 16.8. This was at 1 to 14.8 in 2010.
The number of teachers in the state school system in the UK is at 468,693. This was at 441, 354 in 2010.
The figures come primarily from the School Workforce Census. The full data can be found here.