Mike Gurney, teacher and NEU rep at Okehampton College and Joint Branch Secretary, said: “It is a travesty that we are still having to take strike action like this. The Government should have come to the negotiating table and resolved this dispute long ago. The fact that the Government has not done so speaks volumes about their true views on the value of staff working in schools, parents and pupils. We continue to ask the public and members to lobby their local MPs so that we can achieve a fully-funded and acceptable pay award and get back to the thing we do best, which is teaching children in the classroom. This action is inevitably going to continue unless the Government gives serious attention to resolving the dispute as a matter of urgency.”
