'12,000 schools' hit by strikes

30 June 2011 Last updated at 14:13 GMT Teachers and lecturers make up the bulk of those protesting Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England and Wales have missed lessons as teachers staged a one-day strike over changes to their pensions.

At least 12,000 schools are known to have been closed or partly closed. Unions say the total is higher.

It is the biggest walk-out by teachers in a generation.

The Education Secretary Michael Gove says he is "disappointed" by the strike.

Action is being taken by members of the National Union of Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the University and College union.

Teachers say planned changes will mean they will have to work longer, pay more and get less when they retire.

Regional variations

College lecturers are also staging a strike and say 350 colleges and 75 newer universities are being hit.

Teachers and lecturers make up the largest group among the hundreds of thousands of public sector workers striking on Thursday over planned changes to their pensions.

According to the Department for Education, about a third of England's schools are completely closed, a third are partially closed and one third are open.

The department based its a calculations on data from 80% of schools.

The NUT believes more schools were affected and estimates 85% of schools in England were are either closed or partially closed.

In Wales, more than half of schools - about 1,000 - are fully or partly shut, with 20,000 teachers there joining the protest.

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We're still in negotiations and the people who really lose out as a result of today's strike are children who are not in school enjoying their lessons”

End Quote Michael Gove Education Secretary Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "Today's action across the country demonstrates the anger and distress that this government is causing teachers. Their unjustified attacks on teachers' pensions are nothing short of disgraceful.

"Teachers are dedicated to the children and young people whom they teach. They are professionals and do not take strike action lightly. But they cannot stand back and see their pensions attacked when all the evidence shows that they are affordable and sustainable and that their costs are falling."

As many teachers prepared to join rallies around the country, Mr Gove went to a primary school in London which was open.

He told reporters: "I feel disappointed that people have chosen to go out on strike today. I understand that there are really strong feelings about pensions and we absolutely want to ensure that everyone in the public, especially teachers, have decent pensions.

The NUT's Christine Blower and Andy Brown of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers explain why they are taking strike action

"We're still in negotiations and the people who really lose out as a result of today's strike are children who are not in school enjoying their lessons, and in particular hard-working parents, who have been put to quite a lot of inconvenience as a result of this action."

The government says changes to public sector pensions are essential to make them sustainable for the public purse and fair to all tax-payers.

The impact of the strike on individual schools is varied, depending on how many teachers belong to the ATL and NUT.

Around 220,000 members of the NUT and 80,000 members of the ATL in England and Wales were eligible to strike.

Regional picture

In some parts of the country the majority of schools are disrupted. In Oldham, Greater Manchester, 80% of schools are closed or partially closed.

In West Yorkshire, about 460 out of 900 are affected.

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We should look after the teachers more than anyone else because they are helping the future”

End Quote Peminder Grewal, parent Support for the strike appears strong in London. In Camden, all but four of the area's 58 schools are completely closed.

In the London Borough of Brent, 64 out of 78 schools are closed or partially closed (82%).

In Kent and Shropshire, about one third of schools are closed or partially closed, while in Surrey, about a third of the county's 400 state schools are shut.

In East Sussex more than half of schools are closed, while about a quarter of schools in Slough are.

Private schools

The strike action is also affecting schools in the independent sector. Some 18,000 of its teachers are members of the ATL, of whom more than 4,000 voted in favour of striking in the union's ballot.

Many teachers at private schools belong to the teachers' pension scheme.

Lord Hutton, in his review of public sector pensions, said having non public sector workers in state schemes could increase their financial risk.

The ATL fears that the government plans to exclude independent school staff from the pension scheme - which it says would affect 60,000 teachers.

David Levin, headmaster of the City of London Boys' School, said a handful of his staff would be on strike and lessons affected would be covered by senior management.

The BBC's Wales correspondent, Colette Hulme, talks to a head teacher at a school in Cardiff

Mr Levin said teachers who were taking action were doing so in sorrow rather than in anger.

"They think it's a matter of conscience. They are very reluctant and, with great regret, are exercising their conscience."

Mr Levin, who also chairs the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, said he knew of a number of independent schools that would be affected by the strike, but all were determined to stay open.

Family challenge

The Education Secretary Michael Gove has repeatedly complained about the likely impact of the teachers' strike on parents.

But Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said: "We regret any inconvenience caused to parents, but a one-day strike will have significantly less impact on children's education than the damage done by making education an unattractive career".

Siobhan Freegard, the co-founder of the parenting website Netmums said many parents were supportive of their children's teachers' right to take action - but support might wane if the action continued.

"It is a pain, there's no doubt about it, lots of mums are having to take time off or make other arrangements, " she said.

"Nobody is really blaming anybody."

"Tolerance is not going to stretch very far because the majority of mums now work. One or two days are fine, and businesses understand, but a lot of people work in situations where businesses aren't going to put up with taking all these days off, and, as with snow days, start docking money."

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