We joined teachers on the picket line during strike in Liverpool - here’s what they had to say

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) in Liverpool walked out on Monday as an estimated 200,000 teachers in England and Wales take part in three days of industrial action. They join nurses, ambulance workers and other working people taking a stand over pay and services.

NEU members say they do not want to go on strike, but there is a crisis of recruitment and retention within the school system. They say a decade of falling pay is a key reason for this and needs to be addressed by the Government.

The union say one in four teachers leave the profession within two years of qualifying, and a third within five years. Thirteen percent of teachers who qualified in 2019 have quit.

’There are going to be no teachers left’

On the picket line at Holly Lodge Girls' College in West Derby, Liverpool, Anne, a teacher at the school, said: "We’re out here because we want a fully funded pay rise in line with inflation. Essentially teachers are leaving in droves. There are going to be no teachers left. We're parents, many of us as well as teachers, so this is about our young people, it’s about our students, and it’s about giving the best quality of education they deserve."

Standoff over talks

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, wrote to teaching unions on 21 February, inviting them to engage in formal talks on pay, conditions and reform, on the condition that the NEU agreed to pause strikes on 28 February as well as the 1 and 2 March - but the industrial action is going ahead.

Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: "It is completely disingenuous to suggest that we are not willing to enter talks with Government. We are absolutely ready to come to talks. What we cannot accept are pre-conditions which require us to pause strike action before we have made any progress through negotiations to resolve this dispute.”

More national walkouts are due to take place in England and Wales on 15 and 16 March.

• To hear more reaction from the teachers on the picket line in Liverpool watch the video above.