The number of teachers in parliament has been steadily falling. After the 2015 general election, just 32 MPs said they were former teachers, compared with 126 back in 1997. Yet many will argue that a critical mass of MPs with classroom experience is needed to voice the realities of life in schools. We caught up with some of the teachers standing on 8 June to ask them why.

Julian Critchley: ‘Michael Gove radicalised me’



A civil servant in the Department for Education before training to be a teacher 12 years ago, Critchley last year left his job as head of history at a south London comprehensive to move to the Isle of Wight. He is standing for Labour there. The campaign has coincided with the announcement that Sandown Bay academy, run by Academies Enterprise Trust, is facing closure. The council leader is writing to the schools minister asking for AET to be relieved of its responsibilities for running schools on the island.

“I’m opposed to multi-academy trusts, which is the privatisation of the state school system. The government misses no opportunity to bang on about how great these companies are and I think they should be nowhere near our schools because their interests are not the interests of the local community. If Sandown Bay academy was still accountable to local Isle of Wight councillors, it would not be shut or underfunded. It’s only because it’s owned and run by a company in London. There’s a commitment in Labour’s manifesto to ensure local accountability.

Over the years, the workload crept up and up and nearly all of it related to managerial stuff: more internal reporting, more target setting, more monitoring. Cuts meant that we could no longer loan sixth formers the textbooks needed for their A-levels. A lot of teaching assistants disappeared or were on reduced hours.

While I liked classroom teaching, I found it very wearing. A lot of teachers will recognise that feeling. There was an ever-present sense that I should be doing more. And I couldn’t. So it felt as though I was failing even though in terms of results, my classes were good.

It’s become more punitive. When Michael Gove came in as education secretary he started an assault on teachers. He called us enemies of promise. I was always political but I think it radicalised me a bit. I probably became angrier.

When we moved to the Isle of Wight, I took a break from teaching to become a primary carer. I had more time to get involved in the Labour party and in the local elections and when our previous candidate decided not to stand again, I was asked to put my name forward.

Labour is putting forward policies to take public services back under public control. It’s the government’s job to support citizens, not shape them to fit whatever model private companies want. I’ve been waiting a long time for a government that instead of bashing public services, will support them.”

Vix Lowthion: ‘I want the local authority to have a say in schools’



Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Lowthion qualified as a teacher in 1999 and teaches geology, geography, history and philosophy at A-level on the Isle of Wight. She is the Green party candidate for the island and the Greens’ education spokesperson.

“I was at an FE college until the summer, when I was made redundant because of a lack of funding for A-level provision. I found it difficult to get a job because my Green party role means saying academies and free schools are bad. On the Isle of Wight there are only two non-academy high schools and they are a federation, so I got a job there.

Academisation is a really big story on the island. AET is calling the closure of the Sandown Bay site a “merger” with a view to that being completed by next September. The Tory-led Isle of Wight council recently voted unanimously to demand that AET pull out of education on the island, which I thought was a particularly bold move, and a welcome one. I want to see the local authority being able to have some say in organising these schools and do the best for the communities.

I became politically engaged while studying with the Open University when I was looking at the problems of the energy crisis and climate change. I joined the Green party three years ago and this is my second general election. In 2015, the local party had put an ad in the local press saying ‘We are looking for a candidate to stand.’ I stood, we worked hard and did really well.

I’m standing really for the love of my local constituency. It’s long been neglected and overlooked. Most people think of the island and think of Cowes Week and the festival but we’ve also got 28% child poverty levels.”

Jack Hickey: ‘Just throwing money at problems doesn’t always solve them’



A primary school teacher, Hickey qualified two years ago and has taught at Blackthorn academy in Northampton since last October. He is standing for the Conservatives in Leicester West and sits on the Conservative Education Society committee.

“When I’m campaigning, people seem pleased I’m not a solicitor. Parliament seems to be overloaded with solicitors and lawmakers, and it doesn’t reflect the wider public. Their field of expertise is so narrow. At work, most of my colleagues are supportive that one of their own is putting themselves forward.

I love teaching but I’m standing for parliament because of the impact you can have through policy changes. My number one aim is to redress the lack of male teachers in the primary school sector – I think 8% of primary teachers are males. So if I’m passionate about tackling this then I need to be as close to the top table as I can. I think having a strong male role model, especially in the schools I’ve worked in, is so important.

I welcome the new curriculum changes, especially in primary. By making assessments more rigorous it means that teaching has to be more focused, like the introduction of phonics and grammar lessons.

In terms of funding cuts, it’s not really mentioned in the school. We are very British – we just get on. If you look at Leicester West, 71% of schools will gain from fairer funding proposals and not a single school will lose out, thanks to the extra £4bn that’s been promised in the Conservative manifesto. There will always be budget constraints but if you really look at the figures, often just throwing money at the problem doesn’t solve it. Often it comes from good management and good strong leadership in a particular school.”

Carl Minns: ‘If half of schools lose, that’s not fairer funding’



A maths teacher at an academy in west Hull, Minns is standing for the Liberal Democrats in East Yorkshire – the third time he has stood. He was leader of Hull city council for five years and served as its executive member for education.

“When I became a teacher two years ago I withdrew from campaigning and politics, but there are things I see in politics at the moment that frighten me as a Liberal. The increasing polarisation in politics and the way Brexit is changing our society meant I couldn’t just sit on the sidelines and not at least be part of that conversation during this election.

The squeeze on budgets has been noticeable in my school over the past two years. The unions have produced a website highlighting school cuts and I’ve been debating it with Tory activists online who are refusing to accept that there are real-terms cuts in schools.

When I did my PGCE teaching practice I taught in the East Riding of Yorkshire and the discrepancy in funding between that local authority and Hull, where I work now, was stark. The principle of fairer funding is not something I’m against, but it needs resourcing to make sure it happens. When you’ve got nearly half the schools in the country losing out, it’s not fairer funding.

All my teaching has been since Gove’s reforms. As a maths teacher, I like the way the rigour has come back in the maths curriculum: on problem solving, and on thinking. It’s a hard challenge, especially for children, but it will lead to an emphasis on thinking skills and it should lead to better qualified A-level students and university graduates.

My political life has been tied up with campaigning on education issues for the best part of 20 years, and that wouldn’t change if I were elected. This time I would also bring classroom experience.”

Paul Field: ‘It’s a high stakes, pressured culture’



Headteacher at Basildon CE primary school, near Newbury, Berkshire, Field is leaving this summer after nearly 25 years in the profession. He is standing for the Green party in Newbury, for which he also stood in 2015.

“Like every teacher I know, I went into this to work with children and make a positive contribution, but that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do. You’re faced with a really high stakes, pressurised culture. There is a stifled curriculum and a lack of opportunity for individual creativity or for just being a child any more. It’s soul destroying and for me, a deeply unpleasant experience.

The last Labour government was on the cusp of delivering a new curriculum model that had individuality, creativity, opportunity and excitement at the heart of it. That got pushed aside and then Gove went all Dickensian on us with this obsession about a standardised curriculum, a far more traditional and increasingly irrelevant level of content and central control. I got to the point where the risk of leaving was less than the risk of staying. After I leave this job, I will continue with teaching in a different way.

In 2010, when the coalition came in, my annual capital budget to look after buildings and do maintenance and invest in technology was cut by about 82% in one year, so I’ve had no money to invest in the fabric of the building. We’ve got old Victorian drains that are breaking and cracking, with tree roots growing through, that we can’t afford to fix. There are holes in the roof; there is lighting we can’t fix.

We never join up what’s going on here, which is the breakup of public service, the privatisation of everything that can possibly be sold as part of a neoliberal vision. If I can see this happening in the public service I’m working in, I know for sure it’s going to feel the same for other public sector workers. I meet with school nurses and health visitors, with police and social workers, all of whom are stretched further and further, with more to do and fewer resources. At some point you’ve just got to say no. That was the motivation for standing. I have absolutely no chance of winning but I’m here to say to the mainstream parties we just want all of you to do better, to be more honest, less devious, and more hopeful and positive.”