WORCESTER'S MP has described the decision to strike by teachers rather than engaging in talks as 'desperately disappointing'.

MP Robin Walker said nursing staff involved in a similar dispute had called off strike action to engage with the Government but that teachers had yet to respond to the offer.

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Members of the Royal College of Nurses (RCN), which represents tens of thousands of nurses, were set to walk out for 48 hours from March 1-3 but the RCN and healthcare officials said the government has agreed to ‘enter a process of intensive talks’.

Mr Walker said of the NEU's decision to pursue strike action today (Wednesday, March 1): "It's desperately disappointing. We have a situation in which the union is preparing to go on strike when there's an offer of talks on the table."

Mr Walker, a former Minister of State at the Department for Education, said it was in 'everyone's interests to get the dispute resolved'.

The city MP said more than £2 billion of extra funding has been offered to schools on top of what had already been agreed.

Last November state schools in England were told they would receive a funding boost of £2.3bn a year for the next two years.

He also said the starting salary for a newly qualified teacher had been raised to £30,000 for 2024/25 which he described as a 'significant increase'.

Teachers across the country received a pay increase of between 5 per cent and 8.9 per cent from September after the government accepted pay recommendations from the independent School Teachers’ Review Body for the next academic year last July.

Mr Walker said further pay increases would mean reducing the number of teachers.

The MP also wished to express his 'huge thanks' to those teachers who had been working at schools in Worcestershire. "They have been doing a fantastic job for our county children," he said.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “As a government, we have made a serious offer to the leaders of the National Education Union and Royal College of Nursing: pause this week’s strikes, get round the table and talk about pay, conditions and reforms.

“It is hugely disappointing the NEU has thus far refused this serious offer and has not joined the Royal College of Nurses in calling off strikes. Instead of sitting round a table discussing pay, the NEU will once again cause disruption for children and families.

“Children deserve to be in school, and further strike action is simply unforgivable, especially after everything children have been through because of the pandemic.”

Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretaries of the NEU, said: "We are very disappointed that Gillian Keegan has given us nothing to work with in order to postpone strike action.

"There has been no offer, substantive or otherwise. The only reason talks have occurred with education unions is because of the successful ballot result and strike action by the NEU. But these have been empty discussions, with Gillian Keegan reiterating her position and offering nothing on pay for the current year. We have always been willing to talk. We want the government to indicate what we might talk about in a joint, and serious attempt to resolve this dispute for the sake of teachers and children's education."