THE National Education Union (NEU) has announced a new round of teacher strikes taking place in July.

On Wednesday, July 5 and Friday, July 7 teacher members of the union will hold two days of strike action in state schools and sixth form colleges in England.

The strikes continue the unions' campaign for a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise and come after NEU rejected a pay and funding offer by the government in April.

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Maria Fawcett, regional secretary of the NEU said: “It is with great reluctance that our members are taking further strike action, but teachers have been left with no choice.

“In stark contrast to Wales and Scotland, where settlements were reached months ago, the Government of England is intent on dragging its heels. Gillian Keegan has refused to engage and refused to meet with the education unions, in spite of the vast majority of teachers rejecting her initial pay and funding offer at the start of April.

“We want to find a solution but it seems the Government is more interested in political games. Having insisted that we must follow the advice of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), Rishi Sunak and his Education Secretary are now saying the opposite. It is increasingly likely that the recommendations of the STRB for 2023/24, delivered to Keegan weeks ago, will not be followed. It is believed that the review body has recommended a 6.5 per cent rise for teachers but she intends to suppress this unpalatable report until the end of term.

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“In moving the goalposts, the Government is infuriating teachers and letting pupils down.

“There is a crisis in education. Schools and colleges are haemorrhaging staff, and those who remain are having to work unacceptably high numbers of additional hours in return for pay which continues to worsen in value. The Government's latest teacher census shows that a third have left the sector within five years of qualifying. They are missing their own training targets as a matter of routine, and teacher vacancies are up by 55 per cent in just twelve months.

“The Government’s latest position is to let this continue, and to deliver yet another real-terms pay cut upon teachers.”