THE key issue in the pensions debate is the raising of the retirement age.

I am nearly 59 and have been teaching for 37 years.

Although I have always loved teaching, I now come home exhausted at the end of a working day that is rarely less than 10 hours, most of it on my feet.

I have just decided to retire a year early – and take the cut in pension that will involve – because I do not want to risk continuing until I am 66.

This is partly for my sake, since the ageing process slows us all down, and makes it more difficult to cope with the many demands put on a teacher.

It is also for the children’s sake. I don’t think I teach as well now as I did 10 years ago, because I don’t have the energy to keep children engaged every minute of the day.

I cannot imagine how tired I would be in seven years’ time, doing this extremely stressful job.

The armed services, police and fire services are exempt from the rise in pension age, because, presumably, it is accepted that their bodies can no longer do the job required of them.

Teaching is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding.

Although medical science enables us to stay alive longer, it cannot change the fact that as we approach old age, we feel more tired, get ill more often and start forgetting things.

I would be happy to work in a less-pressured environment, but classroom teaching is not for the over-60s.

This is why I support the strike on June 30.

ELEANOR WATTS Bartholomew Road Oxford