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School Strike Action Threatened By Teachers

Education Secretary Michael Gove has been branded a "man with a mad idea for every occasion" as fresh strike action was threatened by teachers.

The Cabinet Minister also faced demands to quit at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference in Brighton.

Activists were debating a motion which called on the union to co-ordinate national strike action in the week beginning Monday June 23, if "significant" progress is not made in tackling a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

This threatens to coincide with at least a dozen GCSE and A-level papers due to be sat by students, although union leaders insist they are not seeking to impact on the exams.

It comes just weeks after the NUT staged a national walkout, and raises the prospect of widespread disruption to thousands of schools in England and Wales in the summer term.

A final vote on the resolution was not taken, and it will be debated again later in the conference.

Ian Murch of the NUT's executive launched a broadside against the Education Secretary, saying: "We need a secretary of state who believes in treating teachers properly and respecting their professionalism.

"Michael Gove, the man with a mad idea for every occasion.

"Michael Gove, the demented Dalek on speed who wants to exterminate anything good in education that's come along since the 1950s.

"Michael Gove, the man who says he wants to set schools free and then sends in the Spanish inquisition."

He told the conference: "We are here to do the public a favour, to make sure Michael Gove's days are numbered. Michael Gove you have to go."

Proposing the motion, union executive member Jerry Glazier said: "We must put maximum possible pressure on Gove and the coalition Government to radically change their damaging policies towards education, their damaging policies towards teachers and their damaging policies towards children."

There was also a debate over an amendment to the motion, which called for the NUT to step up its campaign and make firm plans for two-day walkouts on two separate occasions in the autumn term.

The amendment, which was lost following a full card vote of delegates, also set out four key demands - an end to performance-related pay, a pension age of 60 for teachers, a £2,000 pay rise for all teachers and a "significant" reduction in working hours.

The NUT's campaign of industrial action has previously been condemned by the Department for Education (DfE), which said it disrupts families and holds back children's education.