TEACHERS in south Devon are expected to join the latest round of national strike action next month.

The National Education Union has announced two more days of industrial action planned for July 5 and 7. 

Schools could fully or partially close. 

The NEU is calling for negotiations with the government to start again and says strike action is a ‘last resort’.

The Department for Education said further strike action would cause ‘real damage’ to pupil learning.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has previously said strike action was ‘extremely disappointing’.

There have already been five national and three regional strike days since February by members of the NEU, which is UK’s largest education union, in dispute over pay and school budgets.

Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, the NEU's joint general secretaries, said the education secretary had ‘turned her back’ on teachers in England.

They called for Ms Keegan to get round the negotiation table, saying their calls have time and again ‘fallen on stony ground’.

Most state school teachers in England had a 5 per cent pay rise for the year 2022-23. 

The government also offered a £1,000 one-off cash payment which was lost when talks failed.

Unions want the offer to be higher to match inflation, and for any pay rise to be funded by extra money from the government rather than from schools’ existing budgets.

The government has offered a 4.3 per cent pay rise for most teachers for 2023-24 with starting salaries reaching £30,000.

The Department for Education described it as a ‘fair and reasonable offer’ and said that schools would receive an extra £2.3bn over the next two years.

It said on average across England, the offer is fully funded. 

This refers to the national picture and each school will be affected differently.

However, talks stalled after all four unions rejected the government's offer, saying most schools would have to make cuts elsewhere to afford it.

They are calling on the government to publish the recommendations of the independent pay review body, which advises what pay rise teachers should be offered for next year.