Schools in the area are shut as teachers stage the walk-outs over pay and funding for education.
Jenny Sutton, secretary of the Hastings District of the National Education Union (NEU), said: “We are on strike for pay and for funding for schools, and for many of us that’s the critical thing. Since 2010 teachers’ pay has gone down by 24 per cent and teaching assistants are in fact paid less than the minimum wage.
"It’s a real scandal and a measure of how much society values children. In our view they are worth an awful lot more . Most teachers now are working in schools that are in disrepair. In our school, The Hastings Academy, the heating has not been working properly since December so the school building is not adequate.
"All over the country school buildings are literally falling down and the kids are not getting the support they need. Teachers are leaving the profession. One in five teachers are leaving in their first two years and one in three in their first five years.
"What this means is lots of kids are being taught by people who are not subject specialists, so you get someone without a maths degree teaching maths or somebody without a physics degree trying to teach physics. It’s not right.
"We want to put pressure on the Government to say that our kids deserve more and we deserve more. You need to value education.”
Teachers in the county are joining an estimated 200,000 teaching staff in England and Wales who walked out on Tuesday (February 28) as part of three days of industrial action.
On Tuesday, members of the NEU in the north of England walked out, with most schools expected to restrict access to pupils or fully close.
Yesterday (Wednesday, March 1), union members in the Midlands and eastern regions of England went on strike and have been joined joined by teachers in Wales and the south of England today.
Further strikes are being planned for Wednesday, March 15, and Thursday, March 16.
1. NEU pickets outside Hastings Academy on March 2 2023.
NEU pickets outside Hastings Academy on March 2 2023. Photo: staff
2. NEU pickets outside Hastings Academy on March 2 2023.
NEU pickets outside Hastings Academy on March 2 2023. Photo: staff
3. NEU pickets outside Hastings Academy on March 2 2023.
NEU pickets outside Hastings Academy on March 2 2023. Photo: staff
4. NEU pickets outside Hastings Academy on March 2 2023.
NEU pickets outside Hastings Academy on March 2 2023. Photo: staff