Teachers’ union says ‘we are as mad as hell’, threatening school chaos up to general election

Teaching unions have threatened to cause chaos in schools over the next academic year, in the run-up to the general election.

Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), the largest union representing teachers, said coordinated strike action in the months leading up to the election would provide “leverage” in its pay dispute with the Government.

He spoke as thousands of NEU members across England walked out on Tuesday for the sixth day this year, causing major disruption in schools, including for A Level and GCSE students.

About 10 per cent of schools are believed to have closed completely.

As well as a potential three days of strike action between June and mid-July, which were described on Thursday as “very likely”, the NEU plans to ballot members to extend its mandate for industrial action into the autumn.

The three other major unions also intend to ballot their members.

Government should ‘want to resolve this’

It could mean a coordinated campaign of strikes by up to 400,000 teachers this autumn.

Speaking to LBC, Mr Courtney said: “We are coming into an election year.

“If I were the Government, I would want to resolve this before they get into that election year, because they wouldn’t want headteachers and teachers talking to parents, telling the truth about what the situation is in schools, where so many have stopped teaching computer science.”

Teachers wanted to resolve the dispute before the autumn, he added.

The Government has offered teachers a one-off payment of £1,000 for the current school year (2022/23) and an average pay rise of 4.5 per cent next year, following intensive talks with education unions.

The NEU’s executive is due to meet this month to decide whether to approve the three strike days in late June or early July.

Delivering a speech to striking teachers at a rally outside Downing Street, he said: “The only way the Government can stop it is if they do the right thing and invest in our children. We have a high moral purpose and we are going to win.”

He went on: “We are mad as hell. We aren’t going to put up with this anymore. We are demanding that this Government invests in this generation of children.”

Good offer made, says Cleverly

A minute’s silence was held against the Government’s toxic and damaging effect on schools.

However, James Cleverly said a “good offer” had been made to teachers over pay and workload reduction.

The Foreign Secretary told LBC Radio: “The best way of minimising disruption to students is for those teachers to be in the classrooms.

“Many, many students have had a very, very disrupted last couple of years because of Covid, and I think everything we can do to help them start their lives better through education is really, really important.”

Today’s strike is being conducted with arrangements to provide minimum staffing, so pupils with upcoming exams could attend classes, although the NEU admitted on Monday that it could not rule out disruption for these groups.

The minority of schools that will have to close completely will probably be those where striking staff push the pupil/teacher ratio to below the legal threshold.