The teachers, members of the National Education Union (NEU), the largest of its kind in Europe, will also hold an industrial action on May 2nd.

The union rejected the government’s one-time payment of 1,000 euros ($1,245) for this year and a salary increase offer of 4.3 percent, as it demanded a fully funded, above-inflation increase.

Earlier, the union claimed that Education Secretary Gillian Keegan can still avoid these stoppages by returning to the negotiations with a better proposal.

The government’s pay offer was an insult to working teachers and failed to recognize the crisis in education, the NEU said last week.

The education sector needs more money and it needs it now, and if the government is serious about education, it must get its head out of the sand, Kevin Courtney, the union’s deputy general secretary, said in a statement last Wednesday.

ef/jav/mem/amp