BRITAIN’S largest teaching union is set to take an indicative ballot over potential strike action for “better pay and funding” next year.

The National Education Union (NEU) said the ballot, due in February, would ask about members’ willingness “to take strike action on the issue of continued austerity in education.”

Its executive has also approved launching a campaign to “build a case over the coming months for better pay and funding.”

The union said it would be “taking the argument to government, to parents and the profession.”

NEU’s national executive met on Saturday to “discuss the crisis in education funding and teacher pay.”

Speaking after the meeting, the union’s general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “This week’s Budget failed to address the existential crisis our schools are facing.

“The government’s proposed 6.5 per cent pay rise for teachers over three years, with no extra money behind it, will only worsen the situation.

“Cold classrooms, leaking roofs, broken toilets. Staff leaving and never replaced. Workload soaring as a result. We cannot endure any more cuts to education.”