Government looks to ban plans for sixth-form strike

The government has declared that sixth-form teachers’ plans to strike are ‘unlawful’ and is set to look to the High Court to put a stop to the plans.

The news comes as members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in England are planning a 24-hour strike on Tuesday 15 March as part of a campaign against ‘inadequate funding’ in sixth-form colleges.

Around 86 per cent of 1,689 sixth-form college members who voted supported the call for industrial action. However, the government has argued that the strike is politically-motivated and is seeking an injunction against it.

Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, said: "We regret that the government has chosen this route rather than seeking to resolve the dispute through negotiations about adequate funding for the sector, which could protect teachers' conditions of service and students' conditions of learning.

"Sixth-form colleges provide a vital service that is in danger of all but disappearing if government does not listen and reverse and remedy the severe funding crisis in colleges."

However, a Department for Education (DfE) spokesman argued: "The NUT is seeking to disrupt the education of thousands of students through what we believe to be an unlawful dispute, based on political grounds and not a trade dispute about the terms and conditions of its members."