All Dundee schools to close next Thursday for teachers’ strike

By Debbie Clarke

January 25 2023, 1:14pm

Dundee schools will be closed next Thursday due to the teachers' strike. Pictured is Grove Academy school teachers on strike outside the school earlier this month. Image: Gareth Jennings/DC Thomson.

All Dundee schools will close for another day next week as teachers’ strike action continues.

Dundee City Council has confirmed that primary, secondary and special schools will close to all pupils on Thursday, February 2 due to industrial action.

The one-day closures will also involve Kingspark School and the Rockwell Learning Centre.

However, the local authority said that Dundee City Council nurseries will be open to children as normal.

This includes nurseries attached to primary schools as well as standalone settings.

Why are teachers going on strike?

The industrial action is part of 16 days of strikes by the EIS and AHDS unions, which will affect two local authority areas across Scotland on each date.

All Dundee schools will close next Thursday due to the teachers’ strike. Pictured is: Craigiebarns Primary School in Dundee. Image: Steve Brown / DC Thomson.

Arrangements are being made for free school meal payments to be made directly to qualifying households.

All schools will re-open on Friday, February 3.

The move comes after talks held earlier this month in a bid to end the teachers’ strike, which has already resulted in four days of school closures, ended with no new pay offer from the Scottish Government and local government body Cosla.

More industrial action is planned from the end of February until mid-April as four teaching unions – the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA), NASUWT and the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS) – continue their fight for better pay.

Further dates for teacher strike action

Those from February 28 are part of a further 22 days of action announced by the EIS on January 13, joined on February 28 and March 1 by NASUWT.

The EIS is campaigning for a 10% pay rise – NASUWT is seeking 12% – and unions have rejected the latest offer of up 5% for most and up to 6.85% for the lowest paid.

Currently fully-qualified, non-promoted teachers are paid between £33,729 and £42,336.

But the Scottish Government and Cosla say a 10% rise is unaffordable.

The government says the average classroom teacher’s salary in state schools was estimated to be over £40,000 and that the starting salary for a fully qualified teacher in Scotland is the highest in the UK.