UK Teachers to strike for first time in 21 years

Pupils aged five to 16 will be locked out on Thursday, April 24, after members of the National Union of Teachers voted for industrial action.

Around 200,000 teachers will stage a one-day strike over pay following the Government’s refusal to improve a 2.45 per cent offer

The action by the NUT - Britain’s biggest teaching union - will cripple classrooms across England and Wales, forcing thousands of parents to arrange alternative child care.

Analysts say it could cost the economy millions of pounds in lost productivity as many mothers and fathers take the day off work to look after children.

The Government announced a 2.45 per cent pay rise for teachers in England and Wales this year, with further rises of 2.3 per cent in 2009 and 2010.The increase was in line with the consumer prices index - the Government’s preferred measure of inflation.

But the NUT said the offer represented a real-terms salary cut as it fell below the Retail Price Index used to measure increases in the cost of living, including mortgages. It has been running at more than four per cent.

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary, said today: "The Government is wrong to determine a pay increase for teachers below the rate of inflation.