For the first time in its 125 year history, members of school leaders’ union, NAHT, will strike over pay. NAHT Northern Ireland will join the other teaching unions in strike action on 26 April.

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “This unprecedented step is about fair pay for teachers and school leaders, who dedicate their lives to children in what is one of the most challenging and stressful roles in civic society.

"They have seen their pay eroded by 30%, in real terms, at a time when so much support, resource and funding to do their jobs has been taken away.

“Several other key factors have fed into the discontent around current working conditions, including decimated school funding, wholly unreasonable levels of workload and the well-documented failures to adequately meet the needs of our most vulnerable children.

“Of course, there is still a chance that this action could be averted and so, again, we call on the government and the employers to make a reasonable offer to our members in pursuit of resolving this escalating dispute.”

Liam McGuckin, NAHT Northern Ireland’s president said: “Strike action is the last resort; the very last resort.

"Our members have reached the absolute last shred of their patience with a system that is failing its schools, its workforce and, most importantly, its young people.

"Without expedited significant investment, we will see a profession that holds together much of the fabric of society damaged irreparably.

"We are losing teachers and school leaders and failing to recruit future teachers and school leaders. Our children deserve better than this.”

NAHT Northern Ireland members last month also agreed to escalate their ongoing action short of strike, which will continue.