Michael Gove 'refusing to back down over teachers' strike' They had demanded one-on-one talks with the Education Secretary to discuss reforms of the teaching profession alongside other issues such as workload and job losses. In a letter to both unions on Wednesday, Mr Gove said he was committed to "resolving your trade disputes" and confirmed that he had "offered a programme of talks." But in provocative move, he insisted that the talks would focus on the "implementation of policy, given that the direction of policy on pay and pensions is fixed following full consultation." In a further intervention, Mr Gove also revealed that every other teaching association would be invited to the talks. This includes smaller classroom unions, two associations representing head teachers and even one non-union body - Edapt - that provides independent advice to teachers on personnel issues. He said: "This will help ensure that all are represented fairly, and striking unions do not have any unfair advantage over other organisations which have not taken strike action." The NUT and NASUWT staged the first in a series of regional walk-outs in the North West of England on June 27. They then embarked on two further strikes last month - one concentrating on the Midlands and Yorkshire, with another taking in the South of England, North East and Cumbria. Both unions had been due to take part in a national strike before Christmas but it was called off after Mr Gove agreed to talks. Speaking at the time, Christine Blower, NUT general secretary, said: "We are giving Government the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions with us to resolve our ongoing dispute on pay, pensions and workload. We have always been available for such negotiations and would have preferred that this was a route the Government had gone down sooner rather than later. For the sake of teachers and the future of our children's education I sincerely hope that the Government takes these talks seriously and we find a speedy resolution to our dispute. Failure to do so will leave us with no choice but to take further action as the issues at stake are far too important to be swept to one side. If there has to be national strike action it will be entirely the fault of the Secretary of State, Michael Gove.