The NEU teaching union said the education secretary had “squandered an opportunity to avoid strike action on Wednesday”, after last-ditch talks today.
Union leaders met with education secretary Gillian Keegan this afternoon after previous negotiations failed to reach a resolution to the pay dispute.
But walkouts will go ahead as planned on Wednesday after union leaders and the secretary of state failed to reach agreement today.
Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, the biggest teaching union in England, which announced the series of strikes, said: “Gillian Keegan has squandered an opportunity to avoid strike action on Wednesday.”
They added that “the government has been unwilling to seriously engage with the causes of strike action”.
“Real-terms pay cuts and cuts in pay relativities are leading to a recruitment and retention crisis with which the education secretary so far seems incapable of getting a grip,” they said.
The NEU is demanding a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise, after experienced teachers and leaders were given a 5 per cent pay increase for the 2022-23 academic year.
Teacher strike: NEU ‘wants a resolution to pay dispute’
Dr Bousted told Tes that, in the meeting today, the NEU spoke with the education secretary about “the importance of really negotiating” instead of having “performative meetings”.
She said: “We made it absolutely clear that we do want to see a resolution to this dispute, but that’s going to involve serious negotiations about serious issues like pay, both for this year and in the longer term.”
There are no dates set for further talks but Dr Bousted said more talks were “promised”.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, described the lack of a “meaningful” offer from the government today as “deeply disappointing”.
He added: “The education secretary is clearly constrained in what she can do by wider government policy and by the Treasury, even though there is overwhelming evidence that we have a full-blown teacher recruitment and retention crisis driven by the government’s erosion of teacher pay and conditions over the past decade.”
He urged the government to resolve the situation before the NEU’s next planned strike at the end of February.
On Friday Ms Keegan urged the NEU to ask its members to “alert” headteachers as to whether they are planning to strike.
However, teachers taking part in the strike are under no obligation to inform their schools about their involvement.
As a result, some headteachers have had to take tough decisions over whether to close without knowing the full picture on staffing.
Last week schools received an email from the Department for Education asking for “information” about their “anticipated operational status” next Wednesday “no later” than 3.30pm today - although the NAHT school leaders’ union advised members that giving this information was not mandatory.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) at the DfE and Ofsted are also set to walk out on Wednesday over pay.
The DfE told Tes today that teams around the department will have an “idea” of how many people are going to be unavailable on Wednesday but this will only be an estimate.
The DfE also said it had contingency plans in place to avoid interruptions to any vital services.
Going into the DfE talks this afternoon, Mr Courtney told Tes: “I think they’re quite panicked by it, by the strike, but I think they’re not taking it seriously enough.”
Downing Street had urged unions before the meeting to “step back” and prevent a fresh wave of strike action.
The prime minister’s official spokesman had said: “We still believe there is time for unions to step back and to call on their members not to strike and avoid the sort of disruption we are expecting to see this week, particularly on Wednesday.
“We think the continuing discussions are the right approach and we’d like to see them continue.”
The spokesman said that any pay increases for public sector workers would have to come from “taxation or borrowing”.
The Independent reported poll findings today suggesting that public support for striking teachers was weaker than for other professions.
In the Savanta ComRes survey, 40 per cent of people were opposed to the teacher strike and just over half (54 per cent) supported them.
The DfE has been contacted for comment on the talks today.
