Secondary teachers will ballot on industrial action unless the Government makes a commitment to reduce class sizes. The ASTI, which represents 16,000 teachers, warns it will be forced to take this action if there is not some provision in the Budget to begin reducing "the most overcrowded classes in the European Union".
Mr Michael Corley, president, said that with an Exchequer surplus of £2.5 billion forecast for this year and next, it was unacceptable that the Government could contemplate refusal to begin reducing overcrowded classes. Classes of more than 30 teenage students for general subjects such as English was now the norm.