Commenting on the Department for Education’s latest statement regarding the NEU’s strike next week, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“It is completely disingenuous to suggest that we are not willing to enter talks with Government. We are absolutely ready to come to talks. What we cannot accept are pre-conditions which require us to pause strike action before we have made any progress through negotiations to resolve this dispute.
“Let us be clear. The only reason Gillian Keegan has come to the table at all is because of the NEU’s successful ballot result. We want to resolve this dispute in the interests of teachers and children’s education. Such a resolution will not come, however, without goodwill on both sides. Inaccurate claims by the Department for Education do nothing to achieve this aim.”