“Teachers are being undervalued, leaving us in a situation where we’re seeing widespread strikes across NI, the first in 5 years,” said the North Down Alliance MLA.
“We all know the immeasurable impact and influence teachers have on our children and young people, it’s only right that this is recognised through fair pay.
“Alliance supported the unions' recent campaign for fair pay in education because we need to ensure teachers are properly valued for playing such a key role in society.
"We urgently need a negotiated solution which reflects the important work teachers do and ensure some are not forced out of the classroom to find other jobs. The fact people dedicated to the Education of our children feel they have no other choice but to strike should sound the alarm for everyone responsible for the governance of our education system and be reason enough alone to get every MLA back to the Assembly."
"With a strike by teachers now looming, the crisis in education gets worse by the day. It’s time for the DUP to accept our children deserve better, end their deadlock and get back to Stormont to get an Education Minister into office to deal with it."