This morning the joint general secretaries of the National
Education Union received a letter from the Education Secretary,
to which they have replied.
The full text of the letter is as follows:
Dear Gillian
Thank you for your letter of 14 March.
The National Education Union of course regrets the inconvenience
caused to parents, children and young people by strike action.
However, the responsibility for this lies squarely with your
department.
The NEU has said repeatedly that we will meet for talks any time,
any place, anywhere. It is your precondition that we call off
strike action in order to have talks, which lies in the
way.
Last week, we, alongside the other education union leaders, asked
for talks through ACAS in order to make progress. You refused to
engage.
Teachers in Scotland have been able to consider an offer. In
Wales, a serious offer has led to the pausing of NEU strike
action on two occasions in the past month. No preconditions were
thought necessary by the Scottish and Welsh governments, and the
sky did not fall in. Progress has been made. England, meanwhile,
lags behind other countries yet again.
The Department for Education's attitude towards talks is not only
unusual but counterproductive. The precondition itself is very
new and unusual. When we, alongside Chris Keates of NASUWT, were
negotiators for the teacher unions during the pensions dispute of
2011, those talks were carried out with Government throughout a
period of industrial action.
You have therefore set a whole new precedent, which is nothing
more than a stumbling block with which to play politics. If the
Prime Minister and Chancellor really have invested you with the
ability to enter serious negotiations and make new offers on pay
for both this year and next, then there should be no need for
such a stumbling block.
We welcomed the talks at the start of the year, but the talks
were only initiated when it was clear that our ballot would be
successful. The ballot broke thresholds which your government
created, that were designed never to be breached. Such is the
strength of feeling of our members, and it is a vote which must
not be ignored.
We know that there is much to discuss with you, not only on pay
but workforce challenges and workload.
Parents see daily the effect that the teacher recruitment and
retention crisis, alongside woeful school funding, is having on
their children’s education. This is disruption to school life
every single day. While we sincerely apologise for this
disruption on Wednesday and Thursday, as a result of strike
action, we believe that parents recognise the need for change.
Parent polling shows strong support for our argument as well as
the strikes.
Over thirteen years, Conservative-led governments have been
derelict in their duties towards parents, children and teachers.
Education has been run into the ground. Teacher training targets
are routinely missed, qualified teachers are leaving at a
worryingly high rate, and the lack of funding for schools is
resulting in headteachers having to cut corners in education
provision as well as being unable to afford or find the funding
to repair their buildings. Our children and young people deserve
so much better. This is only possible through a serious
commitment to funding schools, and in terms of teacher and
support staff pay, ensuring it is not only above inflation but
fully-funded.
The NEU's Pay Up! Save Our Schools campaign is calling for
investment in education, for investment in this generation of
children, the generation hit so hard by Covid.
Our members take very seriously the achievements of the pupils to
whom they are responsible. That is why they will strike over the
next two days with enormous regret. It was wholly avoidable, were
it not for your insistence on a spurious precondition which
cannot and should not be met.
Dr Mary Bousted & Kevin Courtney
Joint General Secretaries
National Education Union
