Teachers' leaders today issued a last-ditch plea for crunch talks with ministers to avert this week’s strike.
National Education Union joint general secretary Mary Bousted urged the Government to negotiate and end the bitter pay row which has triggered scheduled walkouts from classrooms in England on Thursday and next Tuesday. “We will go in any time,” she told BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show.
“My members do not want to be out on strike but they feel there is no alternative … we don't want to do this.
“I say now, directly to the Government, ‘We’ll go in tomorrow, let’s negotiate so we don’t have to take strike action on Thursday’. None of my members want to disrupt education and lose more pay when they are so inadequately paid already.”
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Strikes could continue until the end of the school year, after NEU members voted for three strike days in late June or early July, reports the Mirror. Teachers in the union voted by 98 per cent earlier this month to dismiss the "unacceptable" wage deal as anger boiled over among school staff at squeezed pay and spiralling workloads.
Some 191,319 members out of the 195,564 who took part in the consultative ballot chose to reject the Government's offer of a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year and a 4.5 per cent rise for most teachers next year. Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman pointed to the disruption youngsters suffered to their education during coronavirus lockdowns
“Children have missed a great deal over the last few years. It is so important that their education continues and is interrupted as little as it can possibly be,” she said. “I hope that disputes can be resolved rapidly and constructively, because we know that children need to be at school.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said he was “quite alarmed by the Government's unwillingness to engage in negotiations”. He added: “Get round the table.
“Personally, I think they need a fair deal. There’s a shortage of teachers, particularly in specialist subjects, and when I talk to headteachers in my constituency, they’re really worried about making sure they can recruit the best people to teach our children.”
But he suggested they should receive a real-terms pay cut, saying a rise of 8% “sounds to me in the right sort of ball park”. Inflation is at 10.1 per cent.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We have made a fair and reasonable teacher pay offer to the unions, which recognises teachers' hard work and commitment. Next year, school funding will be at its highest level in history – per pupil, in real terms.
“We know schools are facing increased costs like energy and staffing, and are providing an extra £2 billion in each of the next two years to cover those costs. As a result, school funding is set to rise faster than forecast inflation in both 2023/24 and 2024/25.”
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