Teachers threaten fresh strikes at schools

TEACHERS have threatened more national strikes as thousands of schools prepare to close or cut lessons tomorrow.

The National Union of Teachers is protesting against ‘underfunding of schools’, with further dates already being considered.

The NUT has warned most of England’s schools will be affected tomorrow either through ‘complete closure, partial closure or reduced timetable’.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan tried to avert the ‘damaging’ strike over the weekend in a written appeal to acting general secretary, Kevin Courtney.

She said the action was ‘counter-productive’, warning that it would ‘harm children’s education, inconvenience parents and

‘Negative impact’

damage the profession’s reputation in the eyes of the public’.

But Mr Courtney said: ‘On this ballot mandate, we can call for future strikes. We will be actively considering further action at our executive in July.’

More than 200,000 NUT members in England were balloted for ‘discontinuous strike action’ in May, with a turnout of 24.5 per cent – below rules in the Trade Union Act 2016, which comes into effect later this year, too late to apply to the current ballot.

Mr Courtney added: ‘It could be that we take more action in the autumn term.’

The NUT wants more funding for schools and education and for negotiations on teacher contracts to address their workload’ to resume.

Mr Courtney said: ‘The strike is about the underfunding of our schools and the negative impact on children’s education.’