North Lanarkshire schools and most nurseries will be closed next Thursday as teaching union members take part in strike action for the first time in four decades.
Council officials have confirmed that all primary, secondary and additional support needs schools are to shut during the industrial action, along with 58 school-based nursery classes.
School lunches and breakfast clubs, crossing patrols and transport will also be cancelled on the day.
Members of the EIS, which is Scotland’s largest teaching union, announced last week that they will take action on November 24 in a dispute over pay, with 96 per cent of those returning ballot papers voting in favour of the move.
A council spokesperson told Lanarkshire Live: “With the exception of the 23 individual family learning centres and 52-week school-based nurseries, all educational establishments – including primary, secondary and ASN schools as well as 58 other school nursery classes – are expected to be closed to children and pupils on Thursday.
“Schools and early learning facilities will be open as normal on Friday, November 25.”
Families who receive free school meals on the basis of low income will be sent a direct payment to bank accounts, or will have a Paypoint voucher posted out “which may take up to five working days”.
The family learning centres which will remain open are Abernethyn, Ailsa, Bellshill, Broomlands, Calderview, Craigneuk, Cumbernauld Village, Devonview, Dunbeth, Forgewood, Innerleithen, Jigsaw, Kildrum, Laburnum, Netherton, Newmains, Petersburn, Richard Stewart, Shawhead, Shotts, Stepping Stones, St Patrick’s in Kilsyth, and Wishaw.
Full-time nursery classes which will remain open are Balmalloch, Cathedral, Clarkston, Condorrat, Eastfield, Glencairn, Glengowan, Holy Cross, Holytown, Keir Hardie, New Stevenston, Old Monkland, Our Lady & St Francis, Our Lady & St Joseph’s, Rochsolloch, Sacred Heart, Sikeside, St Kevin’s, St Mary’s in Cleland, St Michael’s, St Teresa’s and St Timothy’s.
North Lanarkshire Council issued the list on a dedicated webpage on the industrial action, adding that “the facilities will be open at the [listed] family learning centres of school-based nurseries open 52 weeks of the year”.
It added: “Children and young people should not attend school or nurseries within schools on Thursday, November 24, unless they attend an early years establishment on the list. You may need to consider alternative arrangements for childcare.
“All buildings will remain open to staff during the period of the strike action. Teachers, early years and other school support staff who are not striking will continue to work from their place of work on the day of the strike.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said last week: “Teachers do not take strike action lightly, but have voted to do so in light of the continuing steep real-terms decline in their pay.
“We hoped not to get to this point, and have given local authorities and the Scottish Government ample time to come up with a fair pay offer.”
News of the planned teachers’ strike came just a day after a similar historic industrial action decision by Scotland’s nurses, with healthcare action now due to start next month.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing last week voted for the first time in their history to take strike action – with Mark Griffin, the Central Scotland MSP, saying that the vote in favour “was highest in NHS Lanarkshire” of all the country’s health boards and adding: “Nurses have been asked to pick up the slack of a staffing crisis whilst accepting below-inflation pay rises – they deserve much better.”
Scottish Ambulance Service workers are also set to go on strike next week, with workers who are members of the GMB set to take industrial action over pay from 6am on Monday, November 28, until 7.59am the following morning.
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