'Ministers have wasted weeks rather than follow the Welsh Government's lead on strikes'

National Education Union joint general secretary Mary Bousted writes exclusively for the Mirror, saying English ministers hoping to avoid school strikes should turn to their Welsh counterparts

Thousands of schools will be hit by strikes this week as the conflict escalates (

Image: AFP via Getty Images

Children in Wales will go to school as normal as members of the National Education Union consider a new offer from the Welsh government.

The Welsh Government has been negotiating for weeks with education unions, including the NEU.

Ministers in Wales understand that strike action is legal, always used as a last resort and terminated when unions secure a deal worth offering their members.

The English government, unfortunately, does not seem to understand that negotiations can take place in the event of a strike.

He wasted weeks when he could have been talking to the NEU, working with education unions to come up with an offer for members to consider.

We want to speak to Gillian Keegan.

We have so much to say about the crisis in our schools - from dilapidated school buildings to starving and cold children.

Unions want to talk to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan (

Picture:

Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror)

We want to speak to the terrible truth that our schools are short of teachers - the government has missed its training targets for secondary school teachers by 41% this year - and next year is looking to be just as bad.< /p>

We want to talk to Gillian Keegan about the excessive workload that drives so many teachers out of the profession.

Teachers work more unpaid overtime than any other profession. So we need to reduce the workload and keep them in schools that educate children and young people.

We want to talk to Gillian Keegan about the fair pay of teachers who have seen their pay fall more than any other professional group - by nearly a quarter in real terms since 2010.

We want to tell him that his government's ambitions for economic growth will not be achieved if our children and young people are not supervised by teachers who are qualified in the subject they teach.

One in eight math lessons is, at the time of writing, taught by a teacher who does not have a math degree.

We want to talk, Gillian. And you?