TEACHERS could be set to walk out of schools in June over a long-running dispute over teachers' pay and workload.

Delegates at NUT conference in Brighton this weekend have debated a motion, which called on the union to co-ordinate national strike action in the week beginning Monday June 23, if ‘significant’ progress is not made in resolving the dispute.

The resolution does not rule out more than one day of strikes, and also leaves the door open for further industrial action in the autumn - a move which leaves hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren across England and Wales facing the prospect of school closures and disruption to lessons.

A final vote on the resolution has not yet been taken, and it will be debated again later in the conference, which will finish tomorrow.

The NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, has also reaffirmed its industrial action strategy to continue to defend the interest of teachers and the teaching profession.

Claire Ward, who represents East Lancashire’s NASUWT members, said: “Our public education system is a promise we make to the nation’s children and young people that they will have opportunity, high quality, good outcomes and an expectation of success for all.

“This promise cannot be delivered unless governments recognise the centrality of the teacher workforce to securing these outcomes. “Attacks on teachers are attacks on children and young people.

“The NASUWT will engage constructively in the discussions as our members would expect us to.

“But the pressure is on the Secretary of State.

“NASUWT members remain committed to maintaining and, if necessary, escalating the current industrial action campaign, including moving to further strike action.”

Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen representative for the NUT Simon Jones said: "We must put maximum possible pressure on Gove and the coalition Government to radically change their damaging policies towards education.

"We need a secretary of state who believes in treating teachers properly and respecting their professionalism." Dozens of schools were closed on March 26 during an earlier round of industrial action.