A teaching union leader has said it is “very appropriate” for teachers to withhold strike plans from headteachers ahead of the first national walkouts tomorrow.
It comes after education secretary, Gillian Keegan, urged the NEU teaching union, which called the strike, to ask its members to “alert” headteachers if they plan to strike on Wednesday.
The NEU is set to hold the first of seven planned strike days on Wednesday 1 February in a dispute over pay.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, was asked by Kay Burley on Sky News this morning “how appropriate” it is that teachers are “not sharing what their plans are with headteachers so that they can make plans” for tomorrow.
He replied: “Well I think it’s very appropriate.
“If this was the pandemic, if this was another natural phenomenon, we would be doing everything we could to make sure schools were running as much as possible.”
The NEU was “in dispute with the government”, he pointed out, adding that “there is disruption every day in our schools” because the government “isn’t investing in our schools or the people who work in them”.
Teachers taking part in the strike are under no obligation to inform their schools about their involvement, leaving heads with tough decisions to make ahead of the strike.
While many leaders are sympathetic to union members’ concerns about pay, some have asked staff to let them know in advance whether they plan to strike, to help support vulnerable pupils as well as parents who will need to find last-minute childcare.
Yesterday, last-ditch talks between the education secretary and education unions failed to avert tomorrow’s action after no proposals were made over pay.
Speaking after the meeting yesterday, Dr Mary Bousted and Mr Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, 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”.
