FAILING US & FAILING KIDS
Union boss fury as Tories refuse teacher pay talk
PUPILS will have strike disruptions today as ministers are slammed for refusing to negotiate with teachers over pay.
National Education Union members will take part in walkouts across England after rejecting a pay offer they called insulting.
It is the fourth such walkout this year. Another is planned for May 2.
More than half of England’s schools were closed or partially shut during last month’s industrial action but Tory ministers are resisting pleas to end the pay row behind the strikes.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is refusing to meet NEU leaders to discuss a new pay offer despite the threat of three more strike dates this term. NEU Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney told the Mirror: “The Education Secretary’s abdication of her responsibility to negotiate is failing teachers and children.”
All major teaching unions have rejected the Government’s offer of a 4.3% wage ACCUSATION Courtney rise for most teachers, plus a £1,000 one-off payment in September.
Keir Starmer’s spokesman said: “It’s absolutely incumbent on the Government to ensure that it is... having those conversations with the unions.”
Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson said: “They just don’t seem to care.”
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza thanked teachers for their work and said she hoped schools could prioritise vulnerable children, and those facing exams.
The Department for Education said: “We have made a fair and reasonable pay offer to teachers.”
■ MORE than 400 HMRC workers will strike for 18 days in May and June, the PCS union has said.
TODAY hundreds of thousands of pupils in England will have their education disrupted as teachers strike again.
The members of the National Education Union are not walking out because they want to damage children’s learning.
They are taking this step because this Conservative Government has failed our schools, pupils and teachers.
Last year, it missed its recruitment target for secondary school teachers by 41%.
And one in eight maths lessons is taught by a teacher not qualified in the subject.
School spending in England has been ravaged by Tory cuts and is now 3% lower than it was in 2010. Over the same period the backlog for repairs to school buildings has doubled to £11billion.
Rishi Sunak has said improving school standards was the main reason why he went into politics. If the Prime Minister genuinely cared about education he would give teachers the pay rise they deserve, repair the crumbling schools and increase per-pupil spending.
Don’t blame teachers for the strikes. Blame a Government starving schools of funds and denying children the education they deserve.