TEACHERS are set to endorse a new wave of strike action tomorrow, amid warnings of “dramatic” funding cuts and staff redundancies.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) says Tory plans to freeze school funding per pupil coupled with changes to pay arrangements will leave councils struggling to cope in a school year from hell.

A motion likely to be heard at the union’s conference in Harrogate slams all of the main political parties for their “totally inadequate” response to the funding crisis in schools, suggesting strikes are possible even if the Tories are booted out of office.

It would instruct the NUT’s executive to “prepare for and ballot for a national campaign of strike and non-strike action” over the impact of cuts on teachers’ pay and working conditions.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has said that nine out of 10 heads are preparing to slash their budgets by 10 per cent as a result of the Tory “flat cash” plans.

And yesterday NUT officials warned that a ticking time bomb would see the costs of employing teachers surge in the school year from September.

Schools will have to pay an extra 2.3 per cent in employer pension contributions and will face the scrapping of the 3.4 per cent national insurance rebate they currently enjoy.

NUT deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney said the “dramatic” changes would lead to a “very tough next school year.”

He said: “You have to think there will be redundancies.”

The motion, which will be heard tomorrow providing a vote today approves it as a priority, also calls for co-ordinated action with other teaching unions and non-teaching unions “where appropriate.”

Fellow teaching union ATL voted on Tuesday to drop an explicit threat of joint industrial action from a resolution on teachers’ pay.

But Mr Courtney said the door was still open to “working together” both nationally and at individual school level.

“We’re open to all possibilities on these questions,” he told an NUT press conference yesterday.

And he said the union, which has been in dispute with the Con-Dem government over pay, pensions and workload since 2011, had garnered significant rewards for its members through its industrial action strategy — winning an average of £800 a year more than ministers’ original proposals.

Members of a third teaching union, NASUWT, will also discuss plans for potential future industrial action at their conference in Cardiff today.

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said the NUT had “no plans” for strike action before the general election, and said the union was keen to “get engaged with the new government” and “take stock” before deciding on action.