Union demands to increase teacher pay are “economically incoherent”, the education secretary has said, as staff begin the first national school teachers’ strike in over six years.
Teachers in thousands of schools walked out today after National Education Union members voted to strike and crunch talks with government failed to find a resolution.
The union wants a “fully-funded, above-inflation pay rise” for teachers following years of real-term cuts to salaries.
But education secretary Gillian Keegan told Sky News government is focusing on halving inflation – currently at 10 per cent – as “we can’t bake in inflation which is what will happen if we start to get wages spiralling out of control”.
