Local authorities in England and Wales are currently adding up the numbers for Thursday’s school strike. So far, there have been over 1,770 confirmations from schools ready to cease activity for the day and many more are expected to follow.

The decision was taken by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) as a sign of protest against a pay offer. The offered 2.45% pay rise for this year is considered to be much less than appropriate and is believed to make the recruitment of new staff more difficult.

Even though it is the first national teachers’ strike in more than 20 years, it will not include all the schools. In Birmingham, only 56 schools out of 441 will be closed or partially closed; in Dorset, 29 schools out of 178 will participate.

The chairman of the National Employers' Organization for School Teachers, Ivan Ould, expressed his opinion and criticized the timing of the strike: "Children so close to their exams will lose out on invaluable study time and parents will lose out as they are forced to take unnecessary holiday to look after them," he said according to BBC News. Many believe that the strike won’t accomplish anything and it will just complicate everyone’s schedule on Thursday.

On the other hand, the NUT's acting general secretary, Christine Blower, explained that the measure is absolutely necessary in order to bring the needed focus on the teacher’s problems and has warned that "three years of below-inflation awards for teachers continues to have a damaging effect on teacher recruitment and retention".