NUT strike shuts thousands of schools
Christine Blower, NUT: "This is the time that we have to take action"
Thousands of schools in England and Wales are closed, as teachers join rallies and picket lines in a strike over pay, pensions and conditions.
Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are taking part in the action, leaving many schools closed to some or all pupils.
Union leaders said the national walkout was a "last resort".
The Department for Education (DfE) said it believed "well under a quarter" of schools in England were closed.
The union said the strike action on Wednesday was covered by two ballots held in May 2011 and June 2012.
The turnout for the ballot was 40% and 92% of these members voted in favour of strike action. The NUT has 326,930 members in England and Wales.
Ongoing disputeThe NUT has been embroiled in its current dispute with the government for more than two years, and staged a series of regional strikes, together with the NASUWT teaching union, last year.
A proposed one-day national walkout in November by the two unions was called off in the wake of talks with the government and the NASUWT has decided not to take part in this latest strike because the government had engaged in a debate.
A leaked memo from the NASUWT claims some members have faced insults and intimidation from NUT members over their decision not to take action. But the NUT denied any negative campaigning from its headquarters.
NUT general secretary Christine Blower told the BBC that talks with the government had not produced the right outcomes and that teaching was becoming "unmanageable" with primary school teachers working 60-hour weeks and secondary school teachers working 56 hours.
"We don't feel that enough progress has been made, actually we feel that no progress has been made," she said.
Ms Blower said the union would go back to the talk after this strike.
She admitted that strike action was "regrettable" and said: "We do recognise the fact that young people are having their education disrupted and that parents are experiencing difficulties today."
'No basis for strike'
Welsh NUT members took their protest to the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff Bay But Schools Minister David Laws told the BBC that there was no basis for the strike.
He said: "I do not understand why the NUT are taking this industrial action in the middle of talks."
Mr Laws said he was currently in talks with seven trade unions, but only the NUT had chosen to strike.
He admitted that he was "concerned" about the amount of hours teachers were working per week, and he said that he wanted to try to reduce this by cutting the amount of bureaucracy and red tape teachers had to face.
Closures and partial closuresSome schools are closed, while others have cancelled particular classes, depending on the proportion of teachers that are NUT members - but it is difficult to gauge how many are affected overall.
The action means thousands of children are missing lessons today Academies and free schools are not under local authority control so town halls will not necessarily know which are affected.
The Department for Education, which is responsible for schools in England only, says officials are trying to determine the number of schools affected but the process is very labour-intensive and time-consuming.
A DfE official said "well under a quarter" of schools in England were closed, compared with about 60% during the bigger of the two national strikes in 2011.
The BBC understands there are 472 partial closures and 297 full closures in Wales, out of a total of more than 1,700 schools.
And in these areas of England, at least the following numbers of schools are affected:
- the North East and Cumbria - about 400
- Hampshire, Berkshire, Dorset, Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight - more than 300
- Birmingham and the Black Country - almost 200
- Sussex - 170
- Essex - more than 100
- Norfolk - 77
- Suffolk - 13
- Kent and Medway - 60
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough - 90
- Devon and Cornwall - 80
- Staffordshire - 50
- Coventry - 12
- Shropshire - 33
- Warwickshire - 80
- Hereford and Worcestershire - 30
NUT members are angry at changes to pay, pensions and working conditions Condemning Wednesday's industrial action, a DfE official said: "Parents will struggle to understand why the NUT is pressing ahead with strikes over the government's measures to let heads pay good teachers more.
"They called for talks to avoid industrial action, we agreed to their request, and talks have been taking place weekly.
"Despite this constructive engagement with their concerns, the NUT is taking action that will disrupt parents' lives, hold back children's education and damage the reputation of the profession."
On Tuesday, Mr Gove wrote to seven union bosses, setting out the progress he believed had been made in an ongoing programme of talks between the DfE and these teaching unions.
In the letter, he said he wanted to underline his commitment to the talks process.
Are you a teacher? Are you going on strike? Are you a parent whose child will be affected by the strike? Email your comments and experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with the subject heading 'Teachers strike' or fill in the form below.