‘BE READY for action in the autumn term, with head teachers with us on the picket line – get ready for a general strike in education,’ National Education Union (NEU) General Secretary elect Daniel Kebede told a mass rally of striking teachers in Parliament Square yesterday.
He stressed: ‘All children deserve fully funded schools. ‘There’s a crisis in our schools in recruitment and retention. We have classes without qualified teachers.
‘This is a government-created crisis. Record numbers left the profession last year. We have an education secretary with her head in the sand. Gillian Keegan has refused to meet us.
‘The last pay rise was a pay cut. Teachers are not the cause of inflation. If the government won’t meet our demands we won’t give up. Our strikes will be resolute.’
The rally in Parliament Square came at the end of a march of thousands of teachers from the London Eye, with simultaneously another mass march and rally of teachers in Sheffield.
As the London rally assembled, John Aitcheson, a secondary school teacher from Greenwich, told News Line: ‘My school is closed because of the density of the union. We need a meaningful pay rise, well above inflation. Within a year, prices have increased so much. If I had not been lucky I’d be on the streets. We need full funding for our schools.’
National Association of Head Teachers General Secretary Paul Whiteman told the rally: ‘There is no offer on the table. In a display of complete contempt for you, the Education Secretary said it’s up to the Review Body, confident it was offering you less.
‘You are about the future of the country. Parents are with you, the public is with you. You can be proud of what you’ve done, you won’t be on your own anymore.’
NEU Joint General Secretary Mary Bousted told the rally: ‘I’ve been on the picket line this morning, with parents and teachers supporting each other. We need to invest in education. Our members can’t pay their mortgages.’
The NEU is taking another day of national strike action tomorrow.