The leader of England’s largest teaching union has warned it will deliver industrial action on a national scale to “save education” if circumstances demand it.

Addressing the NEU union’s annual conference in Brighton today, general secretary Daniel Kebede lamented the state of English schools, which he said had been “diminished by design”.

Mr Kebede, who has held his role since 2023, said that the underfunding of schools has a human toll, with many teachers leaving the profession as a result.

Schools ‘diminished by design’

“Our nation’s schools have been starved for more than a decade - not neglected by accident but diminished by design,” he said.

“Exhausted educators” working in “overcrowded classrooms” and “crumbling” buildings are now leaving the profession “because there is nothing left to give”, Mr Kebede added.

The general secretary insisted that the union cannot be “polite” about the “truth of underfunding”.

“This is why we must strain every sinew to mobilise every educator in this country - to demand, collectively, the funding our schools need. Because without it, we are asking schools to perform miracles while denying them even the tools to survive.

“And that is why the time to save education is now. And that is why, if necessary, we will deliver national industrial action to save it.”

Echoing sentiments from Green Party leader Zack Polanksi, who spoke at the conference on Monday, Mr Kebede called for the abolition of Ofsted and criticised the details of many of the government’s headline education measures.

Mr Kebede said: “The new Ofsted framework, the curriculum and assessment review, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the [schools] White Paper - whilst much of the headline rhetoric can be welcomed, the policy detail just does not deliver.”

The NEU leader said Ofsted had promised a “language of change” with its new inspection framework but this has not been delivered.

Ofsted ‘needs to go now’

Mr Kebede added: “If the machinery of fear remains intact, then there is no change. There is only rebranding: the same threat, the same damage, the same distress. Ofsted needed to go then, and it needs to go now.”

The NEU’s relationship with other unions was also referenced in Mr Kebede’s speech.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Tes in January, the general secretary said it would be a “great shame” if the NEU had to leave the Trades Union Congress (TUC), following a dispute over actively recruiting more support staff.

In February the NEU voted to withdraw from the 2017 TUC-brokered agreement that restricted its ability to organise school support staff.

Speaking today, Mr Kebede said he “values” the union’s role within the TUC and would “never” advocate for the union to leave it, but that relationships with other unions should be explored.