Teachers’ strikes have undermined stability in the country, causing disruption for schoolchildren at a “worst time,” said Education Secretary Gillian Keegan.
The two-year pandemic saw schools in England shut down and reopen again, affecting face-to-face teaching time and the pupils’ attendance.
“Children have been through so much in the pandemic; I can’t think of a worst time to be willingly keeping them out of school,” Ms. Keegan said.
Teachers’ strikes, announced by National Education Union (NEU), took place on Wednesday, with another action planned on Friday.
“This disruption is undermining the stability we have been working so hard to recover after the pandemic. And we know that it’s critical to ensure children spend as much time in school as possible,” the education secretary said.
In response to industrial action, the government has proposed to increase teachers’ salaries by 4.5 percent in 2024 and offered a one-off payment of £1,000 for this year, on top of the 5.4 percent average pay rise teachers received in September 2022.
Teachers outside of London would see their starting salary rise by 7.1 percent to £30,000.
NEU members, alongside other education unions, have voted down the government’s offer.
The independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) will now be making the decision on the teachers’ pay in England.
“There is no good reason for any delay in their publication. Further delay is leading to continuing anxiety across all schools and frustrating head teachers and school leaders’ ability to plan and manage already difficult budgets for the forthcoming school year,” the letter said.
The unions have called for a “swift resolution” to the current dispute and criticised the government for “dragging out” the process.
“The ball is firmly in the government’s court,” the unions said.
At the LGA conference, Ms. Keegan was asked when was the last time she held discussions with the unions over the teachers’ pay.
“I think I’ve done pretty well actually in terms of getting money from the Treasury, but all of it has not stopped a single strike so it’s very disappointing. I’m hoping that we can be in a different place let’s say soon but it is very disappointing,” the education secretary said.
Earlier in March, Ms. Keegan called the strike action “completely unnecessary.”
While the government wants to engage in teachers’ pay discussions, its condition was for the unions to pause the strikes, she added.
The same pay rise offer was made to unions representing nurses, ambulance workers and physiotherapists—who have accepted it and stopped industrial action, Ms. Keegan said. She called on the NEU to call off the strikes and end the “needless disruption” they bring.
“[With] CPI inflation currently expected to be about 10 percent in 2022–2023, these increases will still represent real-terms salary cuts […] salaries for teachers on most pay grades are expected to fall by 5 percent in real terms in 2022–2023,” the Institute for Fiscal Studies reported.
New teachers are likely to see real-terms salary cuts of 1-3 percent in 2022–2023, according to the findings.
This week’s industrial action is the latest in a series of eight regional and national NEU strike days during 2023.
Ms. Keegan has asked teachers to inform their schools in advance, should they decide to go on a strike again, “ to help schools and families plan ahead.”
