Teachers strike to go ahead after education secretary 'squandered an opportunity' to avoid action

Following a meeting with the education secretary Gillian Keegan yesterday (30 January) afternoon, where last-ditch attempts to halt tomorrow’s first walk-out failed, union leaders said that Keegan had ’squandered an opportunity’ to avoid strike action.

The news comes as a new poll of 8,200 teachers, undertaken by daily surveying app, Teacher Tapp on Sunday, suggests that 14 per cent of schools are planning to close to all pupils, while 44 per cent of teachers said their school would close ‘for some pupils’.

London schools are most likely to disrupted, the poll found, with 23 per cent of teachers saying their schools would close for all pupils.

Commenting on the meeting, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said, ‘Gillian Keegan has squandered an opportunity to avoid strike action on Wednesday.

‘The Government has been unwilling to seriously engage with the causes of strike action. Real-terms pay cuts and cuts in pay relativities are leading to a recruitment and retention crisis with which the education secretary so far seems incapable of getting a grip.

‘Training targets are routinely missed, year on year. This is having consequences for learning, with disruption every day to children's education.

‘We can do better as a nation, for education, for our children, if we invest more. That is in the gift of this Government. It should start with a fully-funded, above inflation pay rise for teachers.’

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said, ‘It was good of the secretary of state to make time to meet with us today. However, the meeting was unproductive. This was unsurprising as the Secretary of State was unable to make any offer on the eve of industrial action. That being said, there is an agreement that further talks will take place and we continue to hope a resolution can be found.’

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), commented, ‘Parents will have been looking for the Government to avert the planned strike on Wednesday. Instead, the Government continues to talk around the issues rather than putting anything on the table which allows for any meaningful negotiation. It is deeply disappointing.

‘The education Secretary is clearly constrained in what she can do by wider Government policy and by the Treasury even though there is overwhelming evidence that we have a full-blown teacher recruitment and retention crisis driven by the Government’s erosion of teacher pay and conditions over the past decade. It is this which has led to the strike action being taken on Wednesday.

The next date of NEU strike action in England is scheduled for February 28. Barton said the Government ‘simply must resolve this matter