Around 200,000 teachers across England and Wales will strike over three days this week in the long-running dispute over pay, according to the NEU teaching union.
Teachers will walk out across the north of England today (Tuesday), with the majority of schools expected to either restrict access to some pupils or fully close, the NEU said.
Teacher members of the NEU are set to strike in the Midlands and eastern regions in England on Wednesday, with further walkouts taking place across Wales and the south of England on Thursday.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, told the PA news agency: “I think across the three days we will have 200,000 members taking strike action.”
The country’s biggest education union has had 50,000 new sign-ups since the strikes were announced six weeks ago, he added.
Most schools ‘will be affected by teacher strike’
Speaking ahead of today’s strike in the north of England, Mr Courtney said: “I think a majority of schools will be affected by the dispute; some of them with full closures and many more with partial closures.
“Some secondary schools will be completely closed, others will have particular year groups in, and a similar pattern in lots of lots of primary schools.”
Picket lines will be created outside schools in regions including the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber today, and rallies will be held in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle.
In a message to parents having to take leave from work to look after their children, or to arrange alternative childcare, Mr Courtney said: “We really do sincerely apologise for the disruption to their children’s education on our strike days, and for the disruption to their working lives and home lives.
“But we do believe we’re taking action with a moral purpose of trying to get the government to invest in their children’s education.”
Last week education secretary Gillian Keegan invited the teaching unions to “formal talks on pay, conditions and reform” on the condition that planned strike action by the NEU this week was suspended.
In response, the NEU called on Ms Keegan to drop preconditions to talks and instead make a “serious” offer on pay to avert planned national walkouts across England and Wales on 15 March and 16 March.
Mr Courtney told PA: “I think the government is fundamentally mistaken in thinking that industrial relations are solved by telling people, ‘You can’t go on strike if you want to talk to us.’
“We are willing to meet at any time, any place and we would really hope that she does meet with us after these regional strikes and comes up with something serious that is an offer that we can put to members.
“That’s what we would want in an ideal world, to find a solution that means we don’t go ahead with those strikes in March.”
On 1 February - the first day of walkouts by NEU members - the majority of state schools in England shut their doors to some pupils.
Department for Education data suggested that 44.7 per cent of state schools in England were open but restricting attendance and 9.3 per cent were closed.
Only 17.4 per cent of secondary schools reported being fully open during the teacher strike, compared with 52.1 per cent of primary schools.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is likely that the impact will be largely similar this week.”
He added: “We are very disappointed that the government has failed to find a solution to the dispute and has instead played political games.
“It has presided over real-terms cuts to pay and the chronic underfunding of schools over the past decade. It is these factors which have led not only to industrial action but also to a severe shortage of teachers, which damages educational provision every day.”
Teachers in Scotland in the EIS and NASUWT unions will also start a fresh wave of national strikes on Tuesday.
Last week most teachers and school leaders in Northern Ireland took part in a 12-hour strike in a dispute over pay.
Amazon workers will also strike today as the wave of industrial action continues to sweep across the UK. The GMB union said more than 350 staff at Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Coventry will take action in a pay dispute.
Meanwhile, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy announced on Monday that 4,500 of its members at 56 NHS trusts in England will strike on 22 March in a dispute over pay.
