For me, Ms Haq was the teacher you never forget. But today’s Ms Haqs are quitting | Bridget Phillipson

Picture the scene: a crumbling school in the north-east, ceilings held up by steel props, children taught in draughty temporary classrooms. In the corner of one, a shy, quiet girl with long plaits sits up, listening intently to the teacher at the front of the class: a young, enthusiastic woman taking a Spanish lesson, eager to inspire her pupils – many of whom, as she did, are growing up on council estates on the outskirts of town.

She tells her charges that there’s no ceiling on what they can achieve, that there is value and worth in every one of them. She even coaches them at rugby in her spare time, and imbues them with a love of learning that will stay with them throughout their lives. We all remember an inspirational teacher, and mine was Ms Haq.

The scene I describe could be from an English school in 2024, but for one key difference: that the Ms Haqs of today are leaving the classroom, not in dribs and drabs, but in droves, ground down by years spent working for a government that treats education as an afterthought.

Overstretched, undervalued, left by a threadbare state to steer children through difficulties that go way beyond the classroom – poverty, insecure housing and mental ill health to name but a few – and enduring the stress of a flawed inspection system, teachers are leaving, many never to return.

Vacancies have reached alarming levels, with severe shortages in Stem subjects. It’s led schools to spend hundreds of millions on agency and supply staff to fill what ought to be temporary gaps, money that could better be put towards textbooks, musical instruments, and enriching school trips.

Our supply teachers play an important role in our education system, but they are being relied upon too heavily, at a cost that is more than just financial: all the evidence shows that without a regular teacher our children’s education suffers – and with it their life chances.

The Conservatives see these problems – not only the crisis in recruitment and retention, but also the stubborn rates of persistent absence from school, our Raac-infested schools estate and the epidemic of mental ill health among young people – as something that affects other people’s children, not theirs.

They have neither the vision nor the energy to fix what they have broken, nor the grip. Little wonder, given the never-ending merry-go-round of Tory education ministers in recent years. Our children need stability in education with Labour, not five more years of chaos with the Tories.

On 4 July, you have a chance to vote for change, to put education back on the political agenda after more than a decade of stagnation under the Tories. By making it Labour’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, and pledging the recruitment of 6,500 new teachers as one of our first steps in government, Keir Starmer has placed education at the heart of our shared national story – just as it was in 1997.

Then, as now, the belief that there can be no opportunity for working-class children without a good-quality education was central. It’s why Labour pledged to remove assisted places at private schools for the very few and to invest the money in smaller class sizes for the benefit of all.

That was the start of a new era of educational reform benefiting a generation of children, me included. The brilliant state education I received set me up for life and led the shy, quiet girl with the long plaits in the corner of the classroom to where I am today: making the case for change as Labour’s shadow education secretary.

It’s why I am so passionate about delivering higher standards and more opportunities for our children in the future; why I want to revive education, education, education for the next generation, to give our children a firm grounding in English and maths, and enable them to learn the joy of life: the exhilaration of music, the excitement of sport, the beauty of art, the wonder of science.

When I met up again with Ms Haq last month, she told me that she came into teaching to inspire children like her – and like me – to achieve the best outcomes they could, to meet their aspirations and to seize the opportunities that would make their lives better.

It’s time for a government that matches the ambition she had for me and my class. It’s time to unleash a new generation of Ms Haqs and fire up opportunity for every child in this country. It’s time for Labour.