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Teaching union executives meet to draw up plans for strike action
Plans for strike action were set to be drawn up by the UK's largest teaching union when its executive met on Wednesday evening, Sky News has learnt.
The special executive of the National Education Union (NEU) were expected to map out a number of scenarios in a full ballot for industrial action while it waits for a final pay offer from the government. The Department for Education (DfE) has proposed a 2.8% pay rise for the 2025/26 financial year, saying it was an "appropriate" offer that would "maintain the competitiveness" of teachers' pay despite a "challenging financial backdrop".
It comes on top of the 5.5% pay rise accepted by teachers last year for 2024/25, which followed eight days of strikes in England in 2023. However, the NEU, led by general secretary Daniel Kebede, has rejected the 2.8% offer as "unacceptable" and "unfunded".
Instead, the union is calling for a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise - although it has not put a figure on the proposal it would like to receive. Mr Kebede has also criticised the government for suggesting schools could pay for it by making "efficiencies" in their budgets, saying schools have already faced years of cuts.
'Anger and fear about what is happening in education' The government will only finalise its offer once it has received the recommendations of the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB), which makes recommendations on the pay of school teachers in England. The DfE has not yet published the STRB recommendations or its decision on whether to accept them - but it is expected that this will happen imminently.
A source on the executive told Sky News there was "real clarity about the impact of an unfunded pay award.
Amir Nisi
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