Teacher strikes: More schools than ever unable to fully open in England

More schools than ever have been unable to fully open in the latest teachers’ strike in England, according to Department of Education (DfE) data.

Teachers affiliated with the National Education Union (NEU) took part in their fifth day of national strike action on Tuesday.

Members of four teachers’ unions have rejected a salary offer that ministers described as “fair and reasonable”.

The NEU is considering three more strike days in the summer.

Based on the 16,400 schools that submitted attendance data:

The DfE data is an estimate of state-funded elementary, secondary, and special schools.

The hardest hit day in terms of school closures remains February 1 – the first day of the NEU national strike action – when an estimated 9.3% of schools were closed.

Richard Garratt, who attended a demonstration outside Westminster with his eight-month-old baby, said he was struggling to make ends meet.

“I’m upset, I was originally a teaching assistant, then I became a teacher and on paper my money is going up, but in reality I’m worse off than I was 10 years ago because of rising prices,” he said.

Exam season begins May 15 in England and the NEU says it supports arrangements for schools to have enough staff on strike days to allow exam students to sit.

High school graduate Katie, 18, is studying English, history and music.

She said she sympathizes with striking teachers because they have “ridiculous devotion”.

“If you spoil gear, you know it [replacing it] will come from the teachers’ own money,” she added.

The DfE data pointed to wide regional disparities in the way schools were affected by Tuesday’s strike.

An estimated 11% of schools were closed in London compared to 2% in the West Midlands.

Paul Williams, a secondary school teacher at Greenwood Academy in Birmingham, was on strike but went to school to teach students in his GCSE math class.

He said his main reason for the strike was that school funding had “deteriorated”.[d] massively in the last ten years”.

The amount of extracurricular activities his school can offer is therefore “very limited”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live in Worcester, Sarah said her daughter is in school because she took her GCSEs this year but that it was “pretty pointless” to be there as other teachers were taking her classes.

The “number one priority” should be exam students and how that affected them, she said, adding, “They are already behind in school.”

The NEU calls for a higher-than-inflation salary increase that does not come from the schools’ existing budgets.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of NEU, said this generation of students has been badly affected by Covid “and that is why we are calling for this investment in their education”.

All four teachers’ unions have rejected a salary offer that included a one-off payment of £1,000 for this year and a 4.3% pay rise for most staff in September, with starting salaries reaching £30,000.

They argued the increase was not fully funded, meaning schools would have had to make cuts elsewhere to be able to afford it.

However, the DfE described it as a “fair and reasonable offer” and said schools would receive an extra £2.3billion over the next two years.

The decision to pay teachers is now made by the Salary Verification Office.

Both Labor and the Liberal Democrats want negotiations between the unions and the government to resume.

Aside from the action of the NEU, the other three unions in dispute are holding votes on strike action.

If their members vote to go on strike, the unions have agreed to join forces, which could result in full school closures in the fall semester.

A DfE official said the coordination of strike action was “inappropriate and disproportionate, especially given the impact the pandemic has already had on student learning”.

Additional reporting from Branwen Jeffreys, Louisa Pilbeam and Sallie George.