bad old days

THE last series of national teaching strikes was in 1985-86 in protest at cuts by the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher, below.

Union figures believe the education system is facing cuts worse than those of the 1980s or those made under Jim Callaghan in the 1970s.

UK-wide strikes in 1985 followed several years of intermittent action, which ended in 1987 with a Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Act.

Union leaders have warned Scottish education is in a “long, dark tunnel” with serious challenges ahead .

Teachers have backed industrial action short of a strike to protect working conditions. They have also agreed to ballot for a boycott of any further developments in the Curriculum for Excellence in protest at cuts to education.