Striking teachers in England accused of undermining pupils’ pandemic recovery

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has accused striking teachers of undermining children’s recovery from the Covid pandemic, saying she did “pretty well” at winning extra funding for schools from the Treasury.

Keegan told a conference in Bournemouth: “Let me be clear, we should not be having these strikes in general, but certainly not now. Children have been through so much in the pandemic and I can’t think of a worse time to be willingly keeping them out of school.”

The strike over pay by National Education Union members in England is said to have affected around half of the country’s 23,000 state schools, with many closed or restricting attendance for the seventh day of industrial action this year. An eighth strike day is scheduled to take place on Friday.

About one in 20 schools in England are thought to have closed completely and many more restricted access to certain year groups, with some having to cancel sports events or transition days for incoming pupils.

“This disruption is undermining the stability we have been working so hard to recover after the pandemic,” Keegan told the Local Government Association annual conference on Wednesday, while teachers protested outside the centre where the event was being held.

Pressed by Laura Wright, the deputy leader of Exeter city council and a former teacher, to meet union leaders to discuss pay and funding, Keegan hinted there could be an announcement soon on the 2023-24 pay round.

She said: “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.”

Keegan is said to have received the report of the School Teachers Review Body (STRB), the independent group that advises the government on teachers pay rates in England.

Reports suggest the STRB has recommended teachers receive a 6.5% pay increase from September, above the 4.3% plus £1,000 bonus offered by the government that was decisively rejected by all four main teaching and headteachers unions this year.

School leaders have been calling for Keegan to publish the report and the government’s response to allow them to finalise budgets from the coming school year.

All four unions – the NEU, NASUWT, National Association of Head Teachers and Association of School and College Leaders – are balloting their members in England over potential strike action from September.

If theballots pass the legal thresholds required, combined industrial action would close almost all state schools in England, in unprecedented coordinated strikes.

Daniel Kebede, the NEU’s general secretary-elect, told a rally of thousands of members at Parliament Square in London: “If this government doesn’t deliver there will be a general strike in education, get ready now. It’s not going to be easy, and it will get harder, but we will win because we have justice on our side.”