Teaching union leaders could push ahead with fresh strike action in July if the long-running dispute over pay has not been resolved by mid June, it has been announced.
The NEU teaching union said education secretary Gillian Keegan could avoid further industrial action if she addresses pay and other issues, including recruitment.
The NEU executive will next meet on 17 June when they will decide on whether to hold to a further strike at the beginning of July if Ms Keegan has not moved to resolve the dispute.
Following a meeting of the union’s national executive, joint general secretaries Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said the minister now has the School Teachers’ Review Body’s report on pay.
They said: “She has the power to reject, accept or amend the STRB recommendations. She has the power to fully fund her decision.
“If she makes the right call, she can start to move our schools in a better direction.
“She can fund schools properly, start to address the decline in teacher pay and its consequences for the appalling state of teacher recruitment and retention.
“If she makes the right decisions, she could also avoid further strike action.
“The NEU executive will meet next on 17 June.
“We hope that by then she will have discussed the STRB report and her reaction to it with teacher and headteacher unions, and discussed both workload and this year’s pay, which remains unsettled.
“If she hasn’t moved to settle the dispute, then that meeting will decide on further strike action in the week commencing 3 July.”
The union is also reballoting its members to seek a new mandate for industrial action for six more months.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Further strike action would cause real damage to pupil learning and even more disruption for parents right across the country.
“Thousands of schools have received significant additional funding as part of the extra £2bn of investment we are providing both this year and next.
“As a result, school funding will be at its highest level in history next year, as measured by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).”
