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Bristol Post

National

Tristan Cork

Schools could close across Bristol as two more teachers' strike days announced

Bristol NEU Gillian Keegan Bristol City Council

Schools across Bristol could be forced to close for two more days at the end of the month, because teachers are set to go on strike again.

The National Education Union (NEU) has two more strike days planned on Thursday, April 27 and again on Tuesday, May 2 - the day after the May Bank Holiday Monday.

The NEU said reps would be working with headteachers to ensure students due to take GCSEs and A-Levels next month won’t be affected, but primary and secondary schools could have to close if the dispute between the teachers and Government ministers isn’t resolved.

The NEU has already staged two strike days this year back in February and March which saw many schools across the Bristol area either closing or partially closing. The strike on March 2 saw a huge rally at College Green as thousands of striking teachers and other workers marched through the city centre of Bristol.

Headteachers have begun writing to parents warning them that the dispute over pay has not been settled since then, and the union is planning two more strike days. The dispute is twofold - firstly, teachers are asking for more pay, with inflation currently ten per cent.

And secondly, the teachers and headteachers are calling for the Government to properly fund the pay rise offer it has made - because the Government has offered the teachers more money, but told headteachers that they have to fund that out of their existing budgets themselves.

One headteacher, Owen Knowles, at Two Mile Hill Primary School in Kingswood, told parents things might change between now and April 27. “The NEU and its members believe that unfunded pay rises are having a huge impact on school budgets and that this must be addressed. Currently any pay rises awarded to staff comes out of the school’s existing budget. This means that the amount that is spent directly on the children’s education is less,” he said.

After the strikes earlier this year, education secretary Gillian Keegan made a fresh offer to the NEU, but it was rejected by members in a vote, because it used money from existing school budgets.

“This resounding rejection of the Government’s offer should leave Gillian Keegan in no doubt that she will need to come back to the negotiating table with a much better proposal,” said Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretaries of the union.

“The offer shows an astounding lack of judgement and understanding of the desperate situation in the education system. No teacher wants to be on strike. Nor can they accept this offer that does nothing to address the decades of below-inflation pay increases making them the worst paid teachers in the UK. The offer will do nothing to stem the teacher recruitment and retention crisis which is so damaging to our children and young people’s education.

“The Education Secretary has united the profession in its outrage at this insulting pay offer. It is now for her to rectify that situation by starting to value education. The NEU is ready as we have stated all along to negotiate with ministers, but this time we hope a lesson has been learnt. Gillian Keegan needs to start negotiations with respect for the profession she is supposedly representing in Government,” they added.

“To parents we say that we have no wish to disrupt education, indeed our action is aimed at getting the Government to invest in the education of this generation of children and the people who teach them,” they added.

The Government said the decision by teachers to strike was ‘disappointing and means less money for teachers this year and possible disruption to students preparing for exams’.