Teacher strikes: When are teachers' strikes happening and where?

Teachers striking in MarchImage source, Getty Images

Teachers in England are on a second strike in a week today, following walkouts by teachers in England and Northern Ireland last week.

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) in England announced they would striking on Thursday 27 April and on Tuesday 2 May.

In Northern Ireland, five teaching unions went on strike on Wednesday 26 April.

This follows six days of strike action by members of the NEU in England across February and March.

Teachers in Wales and Scotland agreed on a pay offer and there are no more strikes planned.

What are strikes and why do they happen?

A strike is when a group of workers decide to stop working to try to bring about change.

Employees do this when they want to protest against something they think is unfair where they work, like pay or working conditions.

Strikes often happen because workers want those in charge to listen to what they want.

A strike is a way of taking industrial action to protest.

Why are teachers striking?

Media caption,

Teachers Strike: Pupils quiz their teacher about why she's going on strike

One of the key reasons teachers say they are striking is over pay, the amount of money teachers get to do their job.

Unions argue that inflation - which sees the cost of things, like food and fuel go up - is above 10% and teachers need to be paid more so they can afford these things.

After the February strikes, the government made a new pay offer for school teachers, which the Department for Education described as a "fair and reasonable offer."

But all four unions involved in the dispute rejected the offer. They claimed schools would have had to make cuts elsewhere to afford it.

In Northern Ireland many teachers have been offered increases for the last school year and this school year but their union representatives say the offer needs to be higher.

Will schools be closed?

Image source, Getty Images

Some schools close in on strikes days although, in England, the government said schools should open if possible.

On previous strike days more than half of England's 22,000 schools were either closed or partially closed.

Data released by the Department for Education showed that on the strike days of 15 and 16 March, 47% of all schools in England were open but restricting attendance, and 6% were fully closed.