TEACHERS in North Yorkshire have voted in favour of strikes in a dispute over pay.

In England 92 per cent of teacher members of the National Education Union (NEU) voted for strike action, with a turnout of 53 per cent.

The union has declared seven days of walkouts in February and March, but it has said any individual school will only be affected by four of the days.

The NEU’s Kevin Courtney described the outcome in England as “the biggest ballot result of any union in recent times.”

The first day of strikes will be on February 1 and more than 23,000 schools in England and Wales are expected to be affected, the NEU has said.

Overall, 300,000 teachers and support staff in England and Wales were asked to vote in the NEU ballot.

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However, the NEU’s ballot of support staff in schools and sixth-form colleges in England did not achieve the 50 per cent ballot turnout required by law for action.

Gary McVeigh-Kaye, Branch Secretary for the NEU in North Yorkshire, said: “This result demonstrates that hardworking teachers have had enough and are now taking the only course of action open to them and withdraw their labour.

“Whilst we are pleased with the result, we are not triumphalist. The last thing that teachers want to do is take strike action, but 12 years of below inflation pay settlements, which has led to 20 per cent real terms pay cut for most teachers has left us with little option.

“The fact that the Government is also refusing to take the crisis in education seriously also adds to the mood amongst members.

“Targets for recruiting trainee teachers are now routinely missed and 44 per cent of teachers leave the profession within five years of entering the classroom.

“The fault lays at the Government’s door. Years of underfunding, academisation, the pressure of Ofsted inspections and an increasingly data driven workload has led to this situation.

“Our members, across 350 schools in North Yorkshire – and nationally - are in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis, but the Government will not enter into direct negotiations on teacher pay.

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“Over the past decade, spending per pupil in England has fallen by 9 per cent in real terms – the largest cut in over 40 years. Research by the School Cuts shows that across North Yorkshires there will be £11.4 million of cuts to school budgets in 2023/2024.

“Most schools are close to running out of already diminished reserves and what this Government is driving us to is a Dickensian dystopia with increased class sizes, crumbling buildings and a lack of basic resources.”