ASCL comment on last-ditch strike talks

Commenting on talks this afternoon between Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and education unions including ASCL over teacher pay and the strike action planned by NEU members in England on Wednesday, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“Parents will have been looking for the government to avert the planned strike on Wednesday. Instead, the government continues to talk around the issues rather than putting anything on the table which allows for any meaningful negotiation. It is deeply disappointing.

“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. It is this which has led to the strike action being taken on Wednesday.

“We are sorry to report that there is therefore no resolution to the dispute and the strike is set to go ahead. The next planned strike is not until the end of February and the government simply must resolve this matter through meaningful negotiation between now and then.”