Strike 'could shut half of schools'

Six out of 10 teachers support the NUT's one-day strike set for April 24, according to a poll for the Times Educational Supplement (TES).

And 47% of the 7,300 teachers questioned said they thought the industrial action would close their schools.

The union announced this week that it would stage the first national teachers' strike since 1987 in a campaign to stop ministers imposing real-terms pay "cuts" on staff.

The NUT, which has 255,000 members, is calling for a rise equivalent to the retail price index measure of inflation - currently about 4%.

But ministers have announced a 2.45% rise for teachers in England and Wales this year, with further increases of 2.3% in 2009 and 2010.

Steve Sinnott, NUT general secretary: "The strike could be called off if the Government meets our demands. I'm always waiting for that call from a minister - my phone will never be placed on silent."

The TES poll found support for the action among members of other unions, which are not striking and which represent more than half the workforce. Among these teachers, 52% said the walkout was a good idea, while 48% disagreed.

Mary Compton, a teacher from Radnor, in Powys, Mid Wales, told the paper: "We are at last waking the sleeping giant, which is our union's ability to take strike action and defend state education."

The Government has called on the NUT to reconsider, warning that a strike will simply "disrupt children's education".