The true cost of the teachers’ strike

Here we go again. It’s term time but millions of kids across the country are being denied school as the National Education Union (NEU) has called its members out on strike once more.

Forget the fact that children have already had three years of their education disrupted by Covid. Ignore the minor issue of school attendance being through the floor and that the average secondary school student on course to miss the equivalent of an entire month of lessons this year.

Following a national strike on 1 February and regional ones a fortnight ago, this week sees two more full days of school closures, complete with the marches, rallies and carnivalesque paraphernalia that unions seem to love so much. Yet one can’t help but wonder why the NEU is still pursuing this action when so many other unions have paused theirs to start negotiations about settlements.