Brent schools close as teachers strike
Members of NUT and NASUWT at Victoria Square, Birmingham, during a one day strike on October 1 by thousands of teachers across four English regions about pay, pensions and working conditions. - Credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images
Schools across Brent closed today as teachers embarked on a day of action against government changes to pay, pensions and working conditions.
Brent Council said a total of 12 schools in the borough were forced to close while 17 were “partially open.”
NASUWT, one of the unions whose members are taking industrial action, said they believed “thousands” of teachers across London had not turned up for work today.
“What we’re doing is sending a very strong message to Mr Gove that teachers are fed up of the relentless unjustified attacks on the profession,” said NASUWT national officer Suzanne Nantcurvis.
“We’re also the voice of children and young people because what Mr Gove has failed to recognise is that when you attack the teaching profession there are inextricable links with the quality of education provision.”
She added: “This is an attack on us and an attack on the education service. Enough is enough.”
Education minister David Laws described the strike as ‘bad for pupils and bad for parents’, adding: “I don’t believe this strike is justified and it is not going to change Government policy.”
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He told ITV’s Daybreak: “These are reforms that are taking place across the whole of the public sector.
“They are, I’m afraid, necessary in these very difficult times where we have to get the budget back under control. Most teachers, I believe, accept that.”
