Education Secretary Gillian Keegan
(Picture: PA Wire)Teaching leaders said they have not been given a new pay offer following talks with the government and warned “we cannot go on like this.”
Teaching unions met with education secretary Gillian Keegan on Wednesday to try to settle their ongoing dispute which has already seen millions of children affected by strikes in schools across the country.
Members of the National Education Union are planning to take further strike action, while other teaching unions are considering re-balloting members.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “While the tone of today’s talks signalled a greater sense of urgency on the part of the government, we have to report that once again there is no new offer to improve the inadequate pay settlement which has sparked the ongoing dispute.”
He added: “We cannot go on like this. Unless there is tangible progress towards an improved offer the prospect of further strike action by NEU members is inevitable, and will lead to members of our union, and other education unions, also concluding that industrial action is the only option left.”
ASCL is considering formally balloting its members on industrial action, but so far the union has tried to resolve the dispute through negotiation.
Mr Barton said: “There is a limit to how many times we can come out of a meeting with the Education Secretary without progress being made.”
He said offers that teachers have been given in Wales and Scotland are “a great deal better than anything managed by the government in Westminster, which has put nothing on the table so far despite having far more resources at its disposal.”
Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union said: “While there was a more positive tone at today’s talks and more meetings will be set up as a result the outcome was still disappointing.” He added: “Nothing in this meeting gave us anything we could work with to justify suspending the next day of regional strikes on the 28 February. Gillian Keegan and the Government need to be aware that teachers will not back down on this. Decades of an education system being run into the ground and below inflation pay increases over the past decade have left the profession utterly demoralised...We hope that the prospect of three days of strike action in regions of England from February 28 to March 2 will concentrate minds in Whitehall”.
Teachers in schools across England walked out on February 1, with schools in London thought to be the worst affected.
An estimated 250,000 London pupils were stuck at home and a further 500,000 were affected because their schools were partially closed according to Evening Standard analysis.
Around 23 per cent of schools in London were estimated to be closed completely and 45 per cent partially closed.
Unions are calling for above inflation increases and want schools to get extra money to ensure pay rises do not come from existing budgets.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said the government has already agreed to provide an extra £2bn in school funding, "which will take real-terms spending on schools to its highest level in history".
It comes as university lecturers in more than 20 London universities, and other institutions across the country, walked out in a seperate dispute over pay this week.
