Teachers have been told that they risk losing the respect and support of parents over their first national strike in 21 years, which threatens to close thousands of schools across England and Wales on Thursday.

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said that the National Union of Teachers was irresponsible to demand a pay rise higher than the 2.45 per cent on offer in the current climate of economic uncertainty.

“I am disappointed by what is happening, although I think my disappointment will be matched by that of parents across the country,” he told The Times. He added that at a time when the Government was trying to keep a lid on inflationary pressures it would be “unthinkable and totally irresponsible” for him to go against the settlement recommended by an independent pay review panel.

Mr Balls’s first comments on the strike coincide with a warning from Bill Cockburn, the chairman of the School Teachers’ Review Body, whose recommendations for a 2.45 per cent pay rise this year, followed by 2.3 per cent in 2009 and 2010, were accepted in full by the Government.

Mr Cockburn told The Times Educational Supplement that teachers risked losing the “great respect” they had earned over recent years. “The trouble about even saying you are going on strike is that it’s like playing a game of Snakes and Ladders – and you have hit the biggest snake and you’re back down,” he said.

Teachers’ pay has risen sharply over the past decade. An experienced teacher in England and Wales at the top of the pay scale in 1997 received £21,318. Today the salary is at £34,281. Teachers argue that, with inflation running at 4.1 per cent, their current deal represents a pay cut.

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