Northern Ireland schools strike action: Special needs children particularly impacted in strike by teachers from INTO, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU and UTU

The five teaching unions, INTO, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU, UTU, are striking over pay until noon today. They have also been on strike in February and April.

​Two weeks ago support staff such as bus drivers, school catering staff, classroom assistants, cleaners and other support workers also had a day of action.

On Friday public transport unions are also on strike, causing further disruption to 60,000 children across NI who use bus passes, as well as others who pay for public transport.

Unite, SIPTU and GMB trade unions voted overwhelmingly to strike over what they said was a pay freeze.

But, for Ms Martin, she cannot see much further ahead than today’s disruption.

"It will have a massive impact to be honest," she told the News Letter. "My son Ethan has multiple needs and relies a lot on routine to get through his day."

He attends Hill Croft Special School in Newtownabbey.

"He also has very limited understanding so he won't understand if I say school is closed today,” she adds.

"He will have a day of really challenging behaviour, that's just his way of expressing his frustration. So I have to take an unpaid day off work which is something that we cannot afford to do.

"And it will affect him the whole rest of the week, believe it or not."

She added: "I know teachers don't want to strike and I believe they deserve to be paid appropriately. I just wish there was another way they could go about it to come to some agreement."

The NASUWT, is calling for 12% pay award for 2023/24, arguing that the last 13 years have seen teacher pay fall by 38% in real terms.

Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, described the pay situation as “simply intolerable”.

“Teachers have not had a pay increase for three years while further education lecturer pay is even worse again,” he said.

“Our members shouldn’t be in the position where they must take industrial action to get the same basic rates of pay as colleagues elsewhere in the UK."

Dorothy Murray of SEN Reform NI says the impact of the strike on special needs families in general will be huge.

Established in June 2023, her organisation is a parent and carer-led advocacy group for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

"The strikes will have a massive impact on a lot of families," she told the News Letter.

"For children with special needs this will impact them even more. For a lot of children with SEN, routine is a crucial part of their life and if there are changes to these routines it can cause children to be dysregulated and cause anxiety and distress."

Finding childcare options at short notice for children with special needs is especially difficult, she said.

“It is important to acknowledge that the strikes are the result of "a lack of fair pay to our teachers and support staff in education" she added.

The Department of Education said it "fully understands the frustration" of teachers and school leaders over the ongoing absence of a pay offer.

"It is regrettable that the Department has been unable to offer teachers a pay award for the past three years similar to other jurisdictions, but it is simply unaffordable within an inadequate education budget."