TEACHERS at Peter Symonds College will go on strike for increased pay and funding.

The teachers, who are part of the National Educators Union (NEU), will be picketing outside the college’s entrance on Thursday, November 28, Tuesday, December 3 and Wednesday, December 4. The pickets will last from 7.45am to 9.30am each day.

The strikes are part of a larger effort by the NEU across the country, with six colleges in the south east striking – including Barton Peveril in Eastleigh and Itchen College in Southampton.

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The NEU represents most staff at the colleges and has won a vote in favour of strike action by its members. Teachers at the colleges will join colleagues across 32 colleges around the country whose colleges face cuts to their pay and funding in comparison to maintained schools.

This follows the anomaly that funding for the teacher pay award of 5.5 per cent has not been given to sixth form colleges. This means that colleges who have seen their funding cut in real terms year after year, will either be unable to fund the same pay rise as other teachers or face unacceptable cuts to their budgets.

Despite efforts to resolve the dispute through seeking assurances from the Secretary of State for Education that sixth form colleges could utilise the additional funding allocated to the sector in the budget for staff pay, no such clarification has been received.

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Nick Childs, senior regional officer, National Education Union, South East, said: “No teacher strikes lightly. NEU members at sixth form colleges are dedicated to their students and the community they serve. The National Education Union has made every effort to resolve this dispute, and we call upon the Secretary of State to rectify this injustice where non-academised sixth form colleges and their teachers are treated unfairly in comparison with colleges in maintained schools and academised colleges.

“The new government has rightly recognised that education funding and teacher pay have been eroded for years and that this has led to a crisis in teacher retention, larger class sizes and fewer resources for students. The colleges in the southeast taking action are seven of 40 sixth form colleges who have been disadvantaged. Our region deserves better. National Education Union members at both colleges are taking strike action to defend their colleges and support their community. They are determined to fight for fair pay and fair funding and will stand firm until their colleges receive the funding they so richly deserves.”

Peter Symonds College has been contacted for comment.