Strike action by tens of thousands of teachers could have been averted if the Government had communicated more clearly that their pay offer was fully funded, a minister has admitted.
Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister, said the ballot for repeated walkouts “might have gone a different way” if teachers had been reassured that the offer of a 4.5 per cent pay rise, plus a £1,000 lump sum payment, would not come out of existing schools budgets.
School pupils have faced several days of cancelled lessons since February due to strike action by the National Education Union, and the Government has been at a stand-off with the teaching unions for weeks.
The unions are balloting for further walkouts this summer and autumn after rejecting the Government’s offer as an “insult”.
As talks between ministers and unions have broken down, the school teachers’ pay review body will make recommendations on a rise by the end of May.
