TEACHERS have voted to stage further strikes, starting with a summer walkout, in a long-running dispute over pay, pensions and conditions, leaving schools facing the prospect of widespread disruption.

Amid calls for Education Secretary Michael Gove to quit, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) vowed to step up their campaign of industrial action at their annual conference in Brighton yesterday.

Delegates overwhelmingly backed a priority motion which calls 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 long-running dispute.

The NUT has said it would not rule out more than one day of strikes and the resolution also left the door open for further action in the autumn. The move could see thousands of schoolchildren across the town face disruption to lessons near exam periods, although the union has said industrial action will be after the bulk of GCSE and A-Level exam sittings.

Several secondary and primary schools were forced to close across the town during the last NUT strike in late March.

Anne Lemon, of the NUT’s executive, told delegates that the resolution did not exclude the NUT from taking strike action with other trade unions.