STRIKES HIT PUPILS AGAIN AND NO END IN SIGHT

HEAT ON MINISTERS AS THOUSANDS MISS SCHOOL | TRAIN WALKOUT THREATENS CUP FINAL CHAOS

- Anna Davis, Rachael Burford ,Ross Lydall

LONDON today bore the brunt as teachers walked out in the “biggest strike yet” — with more than three- quarters of a million children hit and no end in sight to the long-running dispute.

Teachers from the National Education Union (NEU) were holding a 24-hour stoppage, with more walkouts planned for next Tuesday and for the summer term. Thousands joined picket lines outside their schools after talks with the Government ground to a halt.

It came as three more rail strikes were announced, including on the day of the FA Cup final. Today’s teaching walkout was being billed as the biggest yet because new data showed that more than 60,000 new members had joined the NEU since industrial action was first announced at the start of the year. London was expected to be the worst hit again, with in excess of 750,000 pupils seeing their schools closed or lessons disrupted.

During the last walkouts in March fewer than one in five schools nationally were fully open to pupils, with just 18 per cent of schools in the capital fully open.