Nut Strike Set to Hit Schools in England

Thousands of schools in England and Wales are to close
or will be severely affected by Wednesday’s national
strike by the National Union of Teachers (NUT), with
primary pupils most likely to receive an unscheduled day
out of the classroom.
Parents juggling childcare and work are likely to face
most disruption in the NUT’s London and Manchester
strongholds.
Manchester city council said 73 schools would close, 55
would partially close and only 39 would be fully open. In
Liverpool, 46 schools will close and a 64 will close to
some year groups, leaving only 14 fully open. In
Newcastle, however, 80 schools will be unaffected and
25 will be partially closed.
The NUT called the strike in protest at what it says is the
government’s unwillingness to negotiate over teachers’
pay structures, pensions and working hours. In contrast
to recent action, however, the NUT has not been joined
on the picket lines by the other major teachers’ union,
NASUWT.
In London, Enfield is set to be hardest hit, with 37
schools closed, including more than half of the borough’s
primaries, 27 partially closed and only seven opening as
usual.
In Newham, 33 schools will be closed, 45 partially closed
and 11 open. In south London, Lambeth said 24 of its
schools would be closed, 26 partially closed and just 12
open.
Partially closed schools will send some classes and year
groups home, focusing their resources on older students
and those with exams.
Local authorities in Leeds said at least 37 schools were
expected to be closed, 109 partially closed and 98 open.
Nine were undecided about their plans.
In Wales, where teachers are affected by national pay
and conditions set in London despite policy devolution to
the Welsh government, more than half of the state
schools in Cardiff will be closed or partially closed.
The Welsh government would not comment on the
effects of the strike, saying it was a matter for
Westminster.
Because the NUT’s membership is concentrated in
primary schools, they are most likely to be affected in
many areas. In north London, 22 Camden primary
schools will close and 12 will be open, while in Enflield34
primaries will close and six will be open. Barnet expects
to see 57 of its 89 primaries closed or partially closed.
The figures the Guardian collected from local authorities
in England do not include academies and free schools,
which lie outside local authority jurisdiction. The
Academies Enterprise Trust, England’s largest chain with
77 schools, said it had identified just one definite
closure, a special school, while some of its secondary
schools would be partially closed.
The NUT and the Department for Education (DfE) traded
rhetoric over the strike on Tuesday, and the education
secretary, Michael Gove, published a letter sent to all the
unions taking part in talks.
“Parents will struggle to understand why the NUT is
pressing ahead with strikes over the government’s
measures to let heads pay good teachers more. They
called for talks to avoid industrial action, we agreed to
their request, and talks have been taking place weekly,”
a DfE spokesman said.
Christine Blower, the NUT’s general secretary, said the
DfE’s response showed how little progress had been
made.
“The secretary of state has attended none of the talks,
nor have other ministers. The talks are with civil
servants who are forbidden by Mr Gove from straying
into areas of policy. The talks are only allowed to discuss
how Mr Gove’s policies are implemented,” Blowers said.
“Michael Gove needs to change direction. If he does not,
he will be presiding over a serious teacher shortage as
thousands continue to leave the profession as a result of
his policies. It goes without saying this will be bad for not
only teachers but the schools and the children they
serve.”
Laura, a science teacher and NUT representative at a
school in Portsmouth, said: “I follow the campaigns of
the NUT very carefully and we are not being listened to
or respected as the professionals that we are. I am sick
of education being used as a political football. The main
people who suffer are our students and the local
community. Enough is enough, and I will be out
tomorrow to demonstrate this.”
Not all teachers, however, support the strike. David
Rogers, an assistant headteacher, said: “Growing up in
the Rhondda during the miners’ strike, I have an activist
streak running through me and I do have a great deal of
sympathy for those teachers who choose the strike. But
for me, the problem is the fragmented union structure in
the UK. This dilutes the message. If you asked for the
position of teachers, you’d get many different, often
competing, points of view.
“As a teacher, of course I want working conditions
optimised and teachers to have a clear voice, but I also
want the main focus of the conversation to be about
what is best for the children.”