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Balls 'very disappointed' by national teachers' strike
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Children's Secretary Ed Balls today said he is "very disappointed" that teachers are to stage their first national strike for 21 years.
"Teachers should not be walking out," he said of Thursday's action over pay which could see over 100 schools shut down for the day.
"I'm very disappointed and I think that parents across the country are disappointed," he said on a visit to a children's centre in south London.
"I'm on the side of parents who will be disappointed if their children's education is disrupted on Thursday because we have decided to accept an independent pay review.
"The majority of teachers do not want to strike," he claimed.
The Government accepted independent recommendations for a three-year pay award with a 2.45% rise in September and 2.3% in the following two years.
As many as 136 schools may close for the day, according to a Guardian newspaper poll which contacted local authorities about the impact of the walkout.
Suffolk and Cheshire, with 28 closures each, look set to be the worst affected areas. Another 10 schools expect to close in Cambridgeshire, 10 in Bedfordshire and nine in Brighton and Hove.
There are 10 schools in Hounslow which do not expect to open and there will be restricted lessons in 10 others, according to The Guardian.
Two-thirds of schools reopen for the summer term today, leaving little time for head teachers to make contingency plans.
The National Union of Teachers says three years of below-inflation pay increases would be "damaging" for the profession and make recruiting new teachers more difficult.
Christine Blower, the NUT's acting general secretary, told The Guardian: "We would expect that in London very large numbers would close on the basis of the information we have... we don't expect
any schools to be unaffected."
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said membership applications has trebled since the strike was confirmed.
Thousands of members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, who work in a number of Government departments, may also walk out over pay on Thursday.
