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Residents of the Isle of Wight are currently feeling the effects of national and regional strikes across a range of different industries.

Train travel and postal services, as well as nursing strikes, have been taking place for several weeks, but now it's affecting education, with many Island teachers taking part in industrial action on a variety of dates in February and March. 

It was reported that during the first national education strike, on February 1, over half the schools in England were forced to close.

Teachers who are part of the National Education Union are striking over pay and school funding deals.

There are currently three more planned strike days for the Isle of Wight: Thursday, March 2, Wednesday, March 15, and Thursday, March 16.

I took some time to discuss the teacher strikes with a few different students.

One student of the Island College was Zoe Gray. She believed that “teacher strikes aren’t helping anyone as they put students and teachers behind their schedules and Covid-19 has already affected students so much that they need all the time they can get.”

I also was able to contact a teacher who was planning to strike. They explained: “For me striking is not an easy decision to take. I am striking because of how lack of school funding is affecting students welfare and academic outcomes.

"I have been teaching for 25 years now and the difference between what we could offer students at the beginning of my career compared to now is shameful.”

Opponents of the strike argue that taking this form of action is impacting children's education and in turn their future.

Strikes in general are seen as a “last resort” as striking can have a serious impact, as people who take part in these strikes earn no money from it.

Also, you run the risk of a strike not succeeding. According to research, 40 per cent of strikes fail with no change seen to pay rates or work environments (these are the most common reasons for striking).

Moving away from the education system and on to travel, the Red Funnel strikes last year caused a lot of problems for people working and commuting each day.

Workers were striking over lack of pay which looks to be the reason for all of the recent strikes with the cost of living crisis still in full effect.

Luckily, the Red Funnel strike did find a positive ending and earned increased pay rates for its employees.

Royal Mail has not been so lucky, with no more strikes planned as of today, but still not the outcome they wished for.

They had planned a 24-hour postal strike from February 16 to 17, but the CWU (Communication Workers’ Union) had decided to cancel the strike.

There is no telling if the teacher strikes will end in victory or disaster so far there hasn’t been any inkling if the government will meet the union’s demands so we will all have to wait and see and hope for a resolution.