Teachers in England on picket lines as strikes cause more school disruption


Eleanor Busby and Jacob Phillips
Wed, July 5, 2023

Teachers in England were back on picket lines on Wednesday as they staged another strike in a long-running dispute over pay.

Many schools are expected to either fully close or restrict access to pupils as a result of the walkouts by teacher members of the National Education Union (NEU), with another strike planned on Friday.

There are fears that pupils could miss out on end-of-year activities – including concerts, trips, sports days and opportunities to meet new classmates – during the strikes at schools and sixth-form colleges this week.

It is the seventh day individual schools in England have faced walkouts by NEU members since February.

Union leaders have warned that schools could face co-ordinated strike action by education unions in the autumn term if a deal over pay cannot be reached.

Speaking from a picket line outside Regent High School in north-west London, NEU general secretary-elect Daniel Kebede said teachers are taking up second jobs amid the cost-of-living crisis.

He told the PA news agency: “I’m certain (if other) education unions would like strike ballots in the autumn term there will be co-ordinated action.”

The NEU – alongside the NASUWT teaching union, the NAHT school leaders’ union and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) – are balloting their members in England to take action in the new school year.

The Government offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year (2022/23) and an average 4.5% rise for staff next year after intensive talks with the education unions in March this year.

But all four education unions involved in the dispute rejected the offer and the decision on teachers’ pay in England for next year has been passed to the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB).

Education union leaders have called on Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to urgently publish the STRB’s recommendation as they warned the hold-up is causing “anxiety” in schools and “frustrating headteachers”.

(PA Graphics)

Mr Kebede told PA: “Teachers are taking up second jobs to pay the mortgage, pay rent and to meet the cost of living. A friend was in an Uber yesterday and their Uber driver was a full-time teacher and a part-time Uber driver.

“The fact is teaching is not providing a decent standard of living anymore. We have a crisis in recruitment retention, we have schools struggling to retain teachers and recruit new teachers. We now have a million children taught in classes of over 31.”

Picket lines were mounted outside schools and sixth-form colleges across England on Wednesday morning, and a number of rallies are due to be held.

Striking teachers will march in Westminster in London before taking part in a rally in Parliament Square.

A poll by Teacher Tapp, of 6,952 teachers in England on June 19, found that only a third said there were no transition days, trips, sports days, concerts or performances, or work experience placements scheduled for the strike dates.

A picket line at Grestone Academy in Birmingham (Jacob King/PA)

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “Teachers do not want to strike. They want to be doing what they do best – teaching and supporting their pupils.

“We regret the disruption caused to education by our strikes and we support the rearrangement of transition days where possible – as some local authorities such as Birmingham, Coventry and Warwickshire have confirmed.

“We grant exemptions to members involved in school trips that cannot be rearranged.

“However, the disruption to children and young people’s education occurs daily due to the running down of our education service by Government. This cannot go on.”

Members of the NEU went on strike across England on February 1, March 15 and 16, April 27 and May 2.

Regional walkouts by NEU members also took place between February 28 and March 2, where any individual school took one day of strike action across the three-day period.

During the most recent national strike action on May 2, Department for Education (DfE) data suggests that 50% of state schools in England were open but restricting attendance and 5% were fully closed.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of ASCL, said: “This week’s strikes are a problem of the Government’s making through its neglect of education and refusal to resume formal negotiations with unions.

“Unless the Government changes its approach then there will likely be further strikes in the autumn term.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “Any strike action is hugely damaging. We have made a fair and reasonable pay offer to teachers, recognising their incredible work and commitment.

“Thousands of schools received significant additional funding as part of the extra £2 billion of investment we are providing both this year and next.

“As a result, school funding will be at its highest level in history next year, as measured by the IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies).”