SCOTLAND is facing its first national teachers' strike in more than a decade after union members yesterday agreed to seek support for a ballot opposing the planned reform of the Higher exams.

Teachers backed the call because they feared the introduction of Higher Still would place an impossible burden on their workload and that they were being expected to implement the changes without proper training and resources.

Letters are being sent to the 2000 members of the National Association of Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers urging them to take part in an industrial action ballot unless the Government meets their requirements.

Union leaders expect to have responses back by the end of the month. A ballot would seek approval for industrial action along with other forms of non co-operation and work to rule.

The move follows a decision by the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, Scotland's second biggest teaching union, to ballot members on a possible boycott on the introduction of Higher Still unless the Government makes concessions on workload and resourcing. The result will be known at the end of the month.

Delegates at the NAS/UWT's annual Scottish Conference at Seamill yesterday also agreed to mount a campaign to end the burden of unnecessary paperwork for teachers. They called on Scottish Education Minister Brian Wilson to end ''the continuous process of change which teachers are expected to undertake with respect to curriculum content and teaching methodology''.

National executive member Tino Ferri said he expected members to support the call for a ballot which would signal the first national strike since 1986 when his union and the EIS mounted a series of one-day stoppages before securing an agreement on pay, teaching, and non-contact time.

Mr Ferri said: ''I have told Brian Wilson and Douglas Osler, the senior chief inspector of schools, about the workload implications but they don't pay the blindest bit of notice. It's like water off a duck's back. Her Majesty's Inspectorate refuses to accept that there are workload implications for Higher Still.

''Perhaps we should now be looking seriously at taking industrial action in protest at the unacceptable increase in our workload that High Still would bring. A pre-emptive strike is maybe better than waiting for a fait accompli.

''We need to look closely at the problems of assessment and the burden they are putting on teachers. We also have to look at the problems of resourcing. Labour's mantra was education, education, education. It should be resources, resources, resources.''

Wigtownshire teacher Bruce Kerr told the conference he has had to buy computer software and books with his own money to implement the curriculum in his subject. He said: ''What other job is there in which you would be expected to go out and spend between #2000 and #3000 of your own money to train yourself to do more work in your own time?''

Mr Wilson said: ''My own extent of contact with teachers in recent weeks suggests the concerns about Higher Still are more about detail and the flow of information than principles which are generally supported. I had a constructive meeting earlier this week with the SSTA. It was possible to deal with many of the concerns and we hope the same applies to other teacher unions.

''The intention is certainly not to increase workload and where problems have been identified, particularly in English, then changes have been made.''