Teacher strikes: Lancashire teaching unions are angry at Preston North MP Ben Wallace

National Education Union members remain in dispute with the government over what they call inadequate pay and funding in schools and colleges.

Two further days of strike action have been announced for July 5 and 7, whilst teachers and support staff are being balloted regarding the undertaking of strike action in the autumn term, potentially coordinated with other sector unions.

The Union says the strikes are due to the persistent underfunding which has led to deep and lasting effects on the education sector, citing how class sizes are at record levels as an example.

A union spokeserpson wrote: “All children deserve to be taught in classes of fewer than 30 led by a qualified teacher, but this is simply not being addressed. Nor is the recruitment and retention crisis, when the government cannot even meet its own targets in teacher training and their pay offer to existing teachers was rejected for being 'insulting'. No wonder teachers are leaving the profession in high numbers.”

They believe the education system has faced years of real-terms pay cuts; a funding crisis; enormous recruitment and retention challenges; escalating workload and working hours; and an inspection system that is doing more harm than good.

As a result, the four largest teacher and leader unions are in the process of balloting members in order to secure a mandate for industrial action in the autumn term, with the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, still failing to publish in full the report of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), who make recommendations on teacher pay, or to confirm whether she would implement a 6.5% pay increase, which has been put forward by the STRB.

The situation in Lancashire

The NEU Lancashire branch say that Ben Wallace, Wyre and Preston North MP, who is also the Secretary of State for Defence, has refused to agree to find time for a meeting with a delegation of concerned NEU members and parents in his constituency.

Therefore, a group gathered last Saturday (June 17) to engage with local constituents near the MP’s constituency office in Great Eccleston and to send a clear message to Ben Wallace that “his failure to acknowledge the crisis in education is an abdication of his responsibilities”, according to the union.

What have the union said?

Commenting on the visit to the MP’s office, Sarah Troughton, NEU Lancashire Branch Secretary, said: “We have worked incredibly hard to engage with elected local and national political leaders on these issues and to try to find satisfactory solutions. Therefore, it is incredibly disappointing that Ben Wallace, MP for Wyre and Preston North, who as Defence Secretary has been given £11 billion in increased funding over the next 5 years, has been unwilling to listen to the many voices who are spelling out the severity of the crisis in education. Sadly, it would seem that further industrial action is the only way we can get the voices of staff and parents heard.”

What has Ben Wallace MP said in response?

The Lancashire Post have approached Ben Wallace for comment but none has been provided.