- guardian.co.uk, Sunday April 20 2003 13.13 BST
- The Observer, Sunday April 20 2003
Delegates of Britain's biggest teaching union will vote for a ballot committing it to strike action if any of its 250,000 members lose their jobs because of the acute funding crisis in schools.
Doug McAvoy, the National Union of Teachers general secretary, told The Observer the Government's failure to address the funding issue had already 'damaged' children's education.
'That failure comes down to the fact either they [Ministers] can't do sums or they won't do the sums,' he added.
The likelihood of industrial action comes with warnings that thousands of schools will have to slash spending on staff because Ministers have made fundamental miscalculations to the education budget. Secondary schools may have to cut up to 25 jobs each this summer as a consequence of the budget crisis, the union claims.
Speaking on the second day of the union's annual conference in Harrogate, McAvoy said: 'The Government's looking around to blame someone for its failure to assess the need for schools.'
The funding row dominated much of yesterday's agenda as a squabble over a 'missing' £500 million intensified. Last week school standards Minister David Milliband courted controversy by blaming local councils for sitting on half a billion pounds earmarked for education.
The last major action by teachers occurred in 1994 when they protested over increased workload. The strike threat came as a deal to tackle teacher workload looked to be unravelling this weekend.
The NUT reinforced its opposition to the 'Time for Standards' agreement signed by the other education unions in January. The deal encourages schools to employ support staff to take classes.
