…By Joseph Benjamin for TDPel Media.
Teachers in the UK are striking, leading to some schools having to partially close.’ The industrial action, the fifth national strike this year, follows a recent nurses’ walkout.
Headteachers are prioritising opening schools for children taking GCSEs and A-levels over the next few weeks, as well as key workers’ children and vulnerable pupils.
The National Education Union has encouraged headteachers to make local agreements with teachers to keep classes open.
The union has issued guidance for providing a “minimum level of teaching staff” to enable GCSE and A-level students to attend school for revision activities or exam practice.
Over 900,000 students are expected to sit A-level and GCSE exams from 15 May.
The National Education Union stated that it regrets any disruption to education and has put measures in place to ensure that GCSE and A-level students have a full programme on strike days.
The general secretaries of the union, Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, have said that they aim to minimise disruption to students, though Bousted could not rule out disruption for exam students.
She added that the industrial action aimed to “make a point” and was not intended to disrupt education.
However, Courtney argued that half of a class’s timetabled lessons represented a “huge scale” of disruption.
He added that the aim of the industrial action was to draw attention to teachers’ concerns about workload reduction and pay.
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said that a “good offer” had been made to teachers over pay and workload reduction.
He argued that the best way to minimise disruption to students would be for teachers to be in the classroom.