Thousands of teachers across Essex take strike action

More than 150 schools across Essex were closed or partially closed as teachers take part in a national strike.

It is the first of seven scheduled days of industrial action organised by the National Education Union (NEU) following a vote by members.

About 88 authority-run schools in the county are partially open while about 31 are fully closed.

Shireen Ayub, the union representative in Southend-on-Sea, said the walkout was "not taken lightly".

"We do this as a vocation, we love our jobs, but what we want is to be paid fairly and in line with inflation," she said.

"Teachers are losing the most money each year and we cannot afford to live, and it's not fair on the children or on us."

NEU said it hoped the majority of its 10,000 members in Essex would be on strike.

The union has 37 pickets outside schools and is holding marches and rallies in Southend, Chelmsford and Colchester.

In Southend, half a dozen teachers formed a picket line at 07:00 GMT at Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, which is closed to pupils.

Essex County Council, the local education authority, said the decision whether to close schools as a result of the announced NEU industrial action rested with individual head teachers or academy trusts.

It said the impact of the strike would depend on how many NEU members each school in Essex had.

The council said the Department for Education had provided guidance to schools around minimising the disruption to children's education caused by the walkout.

The county council said by the end of Wednesday some 175 schools had informed it that they had either fully or partially closed.

It was expected to be the largest day of industrial action in a decade with civil servants, train and bus drivers and university lecturers also striking.

The government's Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told BBC Breakfast "it makes no sense to give inflation-busting pay rises to some of the workforce" at a time when prices were rising for everyone.

She added that she had held five meetings with union leaders in recent weeks.

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