This Government's record on education shows a blatant disregard for ordinary children and young people and the teaching profession.
Real-terms pay cuts over the past 13 years have seen the value of teachers' salaries drop compared to other graduate professions.
It is one of the factors driving the teacher recruitment and retention crisis in our schools, resulting in schools and colleges struggling to fill vacancies.
One in four teachers leaves within three years of qualification – a third within five.
Special needs support assistants leave for jobs in supermarkets with higher pay, less hours and less stress.
Half a million children in state schools are taught by staff who are not qualified in the subject they are teaching: maths, English, physics, computing, languages – all vital subjects for our children’s education.
We don't see these problems in private schools, of course.
Primary class sizes are the highest in Europe and secondary class sizes the highest since records began.
The Government’s last offer on teachers’ pay even expected most schools to make further cuts to pay for it!
It is against this backdrop that NEU teachers in England are regrettably having to take further strike action over pay on April 27 and May 2.
Wales and Scotland have both reached settlements on teacher pay.
It is about time that the Westminster Government gets serious and gets back round the table to resolve this dispute.
What has been offered so far is clearly nothing short of insulting, with an overwhelming 98% of NEU teacher members in England rejecting the offer.
Investment in this generation of children's education, with professionals shown the value and respect they deserve, should be a priority.
The last Government pay offer has done one thing - it has united the profession in opposition to it.
ASCL, the headteacher union, is balloting members for strike action for the first time in their history with other education unions likely to follow suit.
Parents and the wider public know that our cause is just and that our action is necessary to save our schools.
The Government is under enormous pressure about its failure to protect public services, including education, on which the wellbeing of the nation depends.
If the Government does not take serious steps to resolve the pay dispute by April 27 the NEU has informed the Education Secretary that we will re-ballot members for a renewed mandate for further industrial action in the next academic year.
Parents and the education profession will be in no doubt that if further industrial action needs to be taken, the blame for this will lie squarely at the Government's door.
